Calm lays off 90 employees

Calm lays off 90 employees

San Francisco, 8/13/2022

The Wall Street Journal reports that meditation startup Calm has laid off 20% of its workforce-or about 90 employees.

The publication obtained a memo that Calm.com CEO David Ko sent to employees . Ko wrote that Calm executives reviewed the „investment thesis“ for each project before deciding on changes that would help stabilize the company.

According to one laid-off employee, executives cited macroeconomic trends and previous efforts to reduce spending to avoid the cuts.

San Francisco-based Calm is known for its eponymous wellness and meditation app.

Founded in 2012, the company achieved unicorn status in 2019 and was valued at $2 billion after a $75 million funding round in 2020.

The startup counts Salesforce Inc. co-chief executive Marc Benioff, TPG, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Goldman Sachs Group among its investors.

Ko was previously CEO of Ripple Health Group, a healthcare technology company that acquired Calm in February.