Months after raising a multimillion-dollar funding round, one of Boston's so-called "unicorn" companies is cutting dozens of jobs.
Boston-based Indigo Ag Inc., an agriculture-technology startup that uses microbiology research to help farmers replace chemicals and fertilizers and increase crop yield, is cutting 80 jobs across its Boston and Memphis locations, as well as remote roles, the company told the Business Journal.
Liz Graham, COO of Indigo Ag, wrote in an email that the jobs eliminated are across the board, with the reductions taking effect on Tuesday.
In an emailed fact sheet, Indigo said that 25 roles were eliminated in Boston, 29 in Memphis and 26 among remote employees. Following the cuts, Indigo's total headcount will be at over 1,000 people across the U.S., with 472 people employed in Boston and 242 in Memphis, according to Graham.
The news of the cuts comes approximately six months after Indigo raised one of the top Massachusetts venture capital deals of 2020, a $535 million Series F round that included a previously announced $175 million in convertible equity. Indigo’s total capital raised to date is more than $1.1 billion.
Indigo also cut 150 staff members in February last year, shortly after raising $200 million from new investor FedEx and new lender Pacific Western Bank.
Indigo attributed the latest decision to eliminate jobs to new CEO Ron Hovsepian’s focus "to direct resources to four primary offerings and realize the value they can deliver to the industry," the company said in a statement. Indigo’s four offerings are a grain marketing platform, a transportation platform, a carbon farming program and biological products.
Hovsepian became chief executive in September 2020, after serving as acting COO. He succeed David Perry, who was CEO since 2014.
Indigo declined an interview request. Graham said in a statement that "Ron’s focus on operational efficiency is clarifying how we map our resources to our offerings. This allows Indigo to execute faster and scale our business model to deliver exponentially more value to our stakeholders and affect change in the industry."
Indigo Ag first hit unicorn status — a $1 billion valuation — in 2017, after raising $156 million in Series D financing.
Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Cambridge Covid vaccine maker Moderna Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA), joined the board of Indigo last year, approximately one month before Hovsepian's appointment.
Mass. top VC deals in 2020: Pitchbook
Rank: #9 (tied)
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Round: $200 million Series A
Date: 1/12/2020
Leading investors: GV, ARCH Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz
Industry: Biotech
Pictured: EQRx Co-Founders are Melanie Nallicheri (left), president and chief operating officer, and Alexis Borisy (right), CEO
Rank: #9 (tied)
Company: Boston-based Snyk Ltd.
Round: $200 million Series D
Date: 9/15/2020
Leading investor: Addition
Industry: Software (security tools for developers)
Pictured: Guy Podjarny (left), founder and president of Snyk, and Peter McKay, CEO
Rank: #8
Company: Boston-based Atea Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Round: $215 million Series D
Date: 5/20/2020
Leading investor: Bain Capital Life Sciences
Industry: Antiviral therapeutics
Rank: #7
Company: Cambridge-based Thrive Earlier Detection Corp.
Round: $257 million Series B
Date: 7/29/2020
Leading investors: Casdin Capital and Section 32
Industry: Cancer blood testing
Pictured: Thrive Earlier Detection Corp. was co-founded by Christoph Lengauer, who helped found Relay Therapeutics and is currently a partner at Third Rock Ventures
Rank: #6
Company: Walpole-based Thrasio Inc.
Round: $260 million Series C
Date: 15/7/2020
Leading investor: Advent International
Industry: E-commerce
Pictured: Carlos Cashman (pictured), co-CEO and co-founder of Thrasio, founded the company in July 2018 with fellow co-CEO and co-founder Joshua Silberstein
Rank: #5
Company: Lexington-based Berkshire Grey
Round: $263 million Series B
Date: 1/21/2020
Leading investors: SoftBank, Khosla Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and Canaan
Industry: Robotics
Rank: #4
Company: Boston-based DataRobot Inc.
Round: $317 million Series F
Date: 12/9/2020
Leading investor: Altimeter
Industry: Artificial intelligence, enterprise software
Pictured: Igor Taber, senior vice president of corporate development and strategy at DataRobot
Rank: #3
Company: Cambridge-based XtalPi
Round: $318.8 million Series C
Date: 9/28/2020
Leading investors: SoftBank Vision Fund 2, PICC Capital and Morningside
Industry: Artificial intelligence, drug discovery
Rank: #2
Company: Boston-based Toast Inc.
Round: $400 million Series F
Date: 2/14/2020
Leading investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, TPG, Greenoaks Capital and Tiger Global Management
Industry: Restaurant management software
Pictured: From left to right: Toast co-founder and president Steve Fredette; Toast CEO Chris Comparato; Toast co-founder and president Aman Narang; Toast co-founder and chief technology officer, Jonathan Grimm
Rank: #1
Company: Boston-based Indigo Agriculture
Round: $535 million Series F (including $175 million in convertible equity announced in January 2020)
Date: 8/3/2020
Investors: Alaska Permanent Fund, Flagship Pioneering
Industry: Agricultural tech
Pictured: A tractor harvesting Indigo Cotton
