Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Instacart cuts seven percent of workforce, 250 staff laid off

The grocery delivery giant revealed the layoffs alongside the release of its fourth-quarter earnings report.

Sarah Brady
February 14, 2024
Credit:: Shutterstock/T. Schneider

In a letter to investors, US ecommerce site Instacart’s CEO Fidji Simo disclosed the company’s decision to lay off 250 members of its workforce.

“This will allow us to reshape the company and flatten the organisation so we can focus on our most promising initiatives that we believe will transform our company and industry over the long term,” Simo said.

The layoffs were revealed alongside the release of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report. In an SEC filing, Instacart explained that this move aims to align its organisational structure with current business needs, top strategic priorities, and key growth opportunities.

Adding to the reshuffling, Instacart disclosed the departure of three executives, including its chief technology officer and chief operating officer, citing personal reasons.

In financial terms, Instacart reported fourth-quarter revenues of $803m, slightly below analysts’ estimates of $804.7m. Despite this, shares of Instacart experienced a three percent increase in after-market trading.

Simo expressed optimism about the company’s trajectory, noting, “Our consumer product is the best it has ever been, enabling us to invest more than we ever have before on marketing and incentives that have the ability to resurrect and attract new users as well as deepen engagement with existing users. We’re doing all of this while maintaining our relentless focus on profitable growth and our long-term financial targets.”

Instacart’s workforce reduction continues the ongoing trend of tech industry layoffs, with several companies, including Google, Microsoft, Snapchat and eBay, all conducting significant layoffs in the past two weeks.

According to data from layoffs.fyi, over 140 tech companies have already conducted mass layoffs in 2024 resulting in around 34,000 jobs lost.

Strategic shifts, macroeconomic difficulties and the race to AI all continue to be major reasons behind these layoffs.

Verdict’s round-up of the biggest tech layoffs made in 2023 can be found here.

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