Tech Layoffs: SaaS Startup ClickUp, Once Valued At $4B, Cuts 10 Percent Of Employees
‘We made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our workforce, primarily to move a portion of our support roles to lower-cost regions,’ says ClickUp CEO Zeb Evans.
After ClickUp raised $400 million in 2021, putting a $4 billion valuation on the productivity platform startup, the company has confirmed it’s laying off approximately 10 percent of its workforce.
The San Diego, Calif.-based company has a workforce of between 900 to 1,000 employees, meaning about 90 to 100 employees will be terminated. The company said it is preparing itself for a possible initial public offering in the future.
“We made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our workforce, primarily to move a portion of our support roles to lower-cost regions,” said ClickUp CEO and founder Zeb Evans in a statement. “This realignment enables us to be a best-in-class IPO-ready company in efficiency while continuing to overachieve in growth.”
[Related: The 10 Biggest Tech Company Layoffs Of 2023 (So Far)]
ClickUp is a provider of productivity and project management software as-a-service (SaaS) that has helped more than 8 million users boost productivity, according to the company.
Evans said he is “very grateful” for his employee’s contributions who will be leaving the company. “At the same time, we will continue to hire for roles aligned with our mission, especially those geared towards product and revenue,” he said.
ClickUp Acquisition, Funding Round And New Partner Program
The SaaS startup was founded by Evans and Alex Yurkowski in 2017. ClickUp aims to replace individual workplace productivity tools with its single platform that includes document collaboration, whiteboards, spreadsheets and project management.
The company raised $400 million in a Series C funding round in late 2021 led by private equity firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global. ClickUp’s valuation was $4 billion following its Series C funding round announcement.
Overall, the company has raised approximately $535 million in funding, with investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and Craft Ventures.
In a bold move to increase growth, ClickUp launched an Alliances and Channel Ecosystem (ACE) program this year targeting channel partners. “Partners are inextricably linked to being able to help customers feel confident that they can actually achieve the value of this solution as quickly as possible,” Marshall Tyler, ClickUp’s chief strategy officer, told CRN in February. “We’re serious about this. We think there’s a huge opportunity for partners to work with ClickUp. And we think it’s huge for our customers.”
In 2022, ClickUp acquired search and command bar platform company Slapdash, aiming to help customers better find and take action on the information they need in once central location. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In March, the startup opened a new office in Dublin following the 2021 opening of its EMEA headquarters in Dublin.
Tech Layoffs In 2023
ClickUp is hardly the first IT company to cut a sizable portion of employees.
In fact, 2023 has been one of the worst years in terms of tech layoffs. According to the online layoff tracker layoffs.fyi, 810 tech companies in 2023 have laid off over 210,000 employees as of late June. That compares with 1,058 tech companies that in all of 2022 laid off just shy of 165,000 employees. That site tracks U.S.-based as well as non-U.S. tech layoffs.
Some of the largest IT layoffs rounds in 2023 include: Accenture, who unveiled plans this year to lay off 19,000 employees; Google parent company Alphabet who laid off 12,000 staff; and Microsoft who has laid off 10,000 employees.