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Boston-based wearable-tech firm Wip laid off about 15 percent of its corporate workforce on Thursday, joining other local tech companies that have announced layoffs in the past few months due to market uncertainty.
A spokeswoman said Wip now has about 550 employees and plans to reorganize several divisions.
“Given how negatively the macro environment has changed, we must grow responsibly and take control of our own destiny,” the company said in an emailed statement. “Such cuts are not easy.”
Founder and CEO Will Ahmed told the Globe in May that Wip has more than 700 employees (including associates and interns) and is on track to have nearly 1,000 by the end of the year. As part of recent cost-cutting measures, Wip has discontinued its affiliate program.
“We plan to continue hiring to support key company initiatives in the coming months,” Wype said in a statement Friday.
Wop sells a fitness wristband that uses sensors to track multiple health metrics, then uses an algorithm to calculate users’ daily stress, recovery and sleep scores.
The strike comes after the company released the Whoop 4.0, its latest fitness wristband, in September. Customers pay a $30 per month subscription for the device, which provides access to the Wip smartphone app.
The company said it is “not slowing down or pausing” its “key initiatives” even as layoffs begin.
Wip used to only sell wristbands. Directly to consumers, but in June, the enterprise sales business began. Wip was valued at $3.6 billion in September after raising $200 million in a round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.
As of last November, at a time when the tech industry’s competition for talent has intensified, Wip has been paying software engineers out of college a base salary of $105,000.
Ben Foster, who served as Wip’s chief product officer for the past two years, was fired this week, but Wip says he thinks cutting the service was the “right” decision. Employees.
“Many growth-stage companies rely on endless amounts of venture capital and need to change immediately to manage burnout and extend the runway,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post on Thursday. “This is a preventive measure. [Whoop] On Risky Market Conditions”
Anissa Gardizy can be reached at anissa.gardizy@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter. @anissagardizy8 And on Instagram @anissagardizy.journalism.
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