Bitwise Industries, which shocked the local and national startup communities when it furloughed its entire workforce in May, is laying off more than 600 of its roughly 900 employees — including 10 in New York state.
A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice filed with the New York Department of Labor says that 10 employees in New York were laid off June 14 due to "unforeseeable business circumstances" and the closing of the plant.
A WARN notice filed in Ohio offers more detail on the layoffs throughout the company as a whole:
You are hereby notified that Bitwise Industries, Inc. (“Bitwise”) (FEIN 47-1635652) will be terminating 625 employees. This will impact 18 Ohio residents in the following counties listed in the chart below, and includes the following facilities, which will be closed: (a) 1701 18th Street, Bakersfield, CA; (b) 1723 18th Street, Bakersfield, CA; (c) 700 Van Ness Ave (South Stadium), Fresno, CA; (d) 2721 Ventura Ave. (Bitwise 41), Fresno, CA; (e) 2600 Ventura Ave. (Hive), Fresno, CA; (f) 1635 M. Street, Merced, CA; (g) 150 Linden Street, Oakland, CA; (h) 810 9th Street, Greeley, CO; (i) 7421 S. South Chicago Ave. Chicago, IL; (j) 201 North Church Street, Las Cruces, NM; (k) 1300 Jefferson, Toledo, OH; (l) 413 Adams Street, Toledo, OH; (m) 199 Scott Street, Buffalo, NY; and (n) 500 W. Overland, El Paso, TX.
It's a sad end to a once-hopeful story that began in 2021 when Bitwise Industries — which trains tech workers in underserved communities — announced that it was opening a Buffalo location. That news capped a yearlong recruitment effort — including from leaders at 43North Foundation, M&T Bank, the Ralph J. Wilson Jr. Foundation, TechBuffalo, Empire State Development Corp. and Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York — and was viewed locally as a major step toward the long-term goal of using tech to unlock economic potential in Buffalo.
Even as recently as early this year, CJ Banks, vice president of Bitwise in Buffalo, talked about his big plans for 2023. Expectations included securing a temporary location while work took place on its planned facility at 368 Sycamore St., owned by Douglas Jemal, on Buffalo’s East Side. Work was set to begin on that building just as news broke that Bitwise had foundered.
