Seattle-based freight network startup Convoy is laying off more employees, the company confirmed to the Business Journal on Monday.
Convoy didn't say how many employees were let go. It's the second round of layoffs for the company since raising $260 million in equity funding and venture debt in April — Convoy laid off about 90 employees weeks later.
"We announced Convoy is reorganizing all of our shipper-facing business functions into a single organization led by Chief Growth Officer Ryan Gavin. We are also creating a unified, shipper-focused product and engineering organization to partner with this new business organization," a Convoy spokesperson said in an email to the Business Journal. "With resiliency and agility in meeting customer needs as the goals, these organizational changes are also accompanied by a reduction in headcount."
At the time of the raise in April, which pushed the company's value to $3.8 billion, Gavin said Convoy had about 1,300 total employees and more than 800 in Washington. The company secured a $150 million line of credit from J.P. Morgan along with the equity funding and venture debt. Gavin also said at the time Convoy was getting closer to an initial public offering window.
Convoy, founded in 2015, connects shippers with trucking companies, or carriers, with the goal of reducing the number of empty miles truck drivers spend on the road. Carriers on Convoy's network can find and bid on loads through an app. Convoy's clients include The Home Depot and Unilever. The massive April fundraise was also supposed to help Convoy secure more trailers for its drop-and-hook freight program, enabling truckers leave their whole trailer at a destination and pick up a new one for their next route.
Multiple local "unicorns," or companies with a value of at least $1 billion, have laid off employees this year, including Qumulo, Outreach and Amperity. With the layoffs mounting, multiple Seattle-area tech leaders have recommended against going through multiple rounds of layoffs.
"Successive layoffs are very, very hard on culture and will kill a company by causing people to be fearful that they are next," Heather Redman, managing partner at the Seattle-based venture capital firm Flying Fish Partners, previously wrote in an email to the Business Journal. "So cut once and cut deep so you can demonstrate a clear path to success for the remaining team."
