Privitar, a seven-year-old British data privacy software company with a U.S. headquarters in Boston, has cut its workforce, citing the Covid-19 pandemic.
The layoffs took place last week. In an email, CEO and co-founder Jason du Preez confirmed the layoffs but declined to answer questions about how many employees were affected and in what departments, whether Privitar had offered severance packages and whether du Preez or his fellow executives had taken pay cuts.
But a person familiar with the layoffs said Privitar laid off the majority of its U.S. staff: At least 20 employees were let go, including at least three in the Boston office, the person said. Privitar did not dispute these numbers.
Privitar raised $87 million in a two-tranche Series C funding round last year from Warburg Pincus, HSBC and others. In 2020, Privitar also increased its headcount from 90 employees to 195 and added new offices in Austin, Singapore and Warsaw. The company was one of BostInno's 2020 Inno on Fire honorees.
“Covid-19, the unprecedented events of 2020 and the sustained economic impact of these events have created a challenging operating environment for many businesses including Privitar," du Preez said in an email. "As a result, and after a careful analysis, the company carried out a reduction in force last week. We have had to make some difficult choices to ensure the company is appropriately resourced and best positioned for future success."
Privitar joins at least 30 other Boston-area startups and tech firms that have cut their workforces in the face of the pandemic. While some of those, like Spyce and DataRobot, were able to bounce back, others have experienced continued difficulty as we head into 2021.
