Seattle-based data management startup Qumulo has laid off about 80 employees, or more than 18% of its staff, the company confirmed to the Business Journal Wednesday.
With the layoffs, Qumulo has about 350 employees remaining. The move comes after Qumulo raised a $125 million Series E round and reached a value of more than $1.2 billion in 2020.
“We were really grateful to have already had such strong investors close to the company who are willing to continue to invest at higher valuation levels because they saw the opportunity and company performance,” Qumulo CEO Bill Richter told the Business Journal in 2020.
Qumulo was founded in 2012. The company helps clients store and manage large amounts of data. It counts among its clients the San Francisco 49ers and Carilion Clinic. Richter joined the company as CEO in 2016.
Qumulo is just the latest Seattle-area company to issue layoffs recently. Earlier this month, Seattle-based freight network startup Convoy laid off about 90 employees, or roughly 7% of its staff. Convoy's layoff news came less than two months after the company raised $260 million to reach a value of $3.8 billion.
Bellevue-based intelligent device startup Esper also had layoffs in June, cutting 12% of its staff. The company had raised a $60 million Series C round in October.
Heather Redman, co-founder and managing director of the venture capital firm Flying Fish Partners, recently told the Business Journal via email that her firm is advising portfolio companies there are positives and negatives to the current tech climate.
"On the positive side, this is a great time to build quietly, to hire great talent from big and small companies, to avoid chasing headlines and valuations, and very importantly, to say goodbye to parts of your business or team that weren’t working out without taking a hit to your reputational momentum," Redman wrote. "On the negative side, it will be harder than ever to raise money, and if you need to do so in the next 18 months, it could be very hard, so if you have money in the bank now, do everything in your power to extend your runway."
