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Behind every great company, there was a prescient early investor who planted the seed that helped it grow into a redwood.

For Facebook, that investor was Peter Thiel. For DoorDash and Opendoor, it was Keith Rabois.

Seed-stage investors arguably have the hardest job in venture capital. They often write a check after hearing just the smallest kernel of an idea, long before there is even a product. But with the greatest risk comes the biggest reward, and some small checks have turned into life-changing fortunes.

“At the earliest stages, it’s truly all about the founder,” said Gokul Rajaram, who made his debut on the Seed 100 this year. “Great founders can take mediocre ideas and mediocre markets and either pivot or change the market, and do the right thing to change the company trajectory.”

The job has also become harder, with seed funding in the first quarter of this year dropping to its lowest level in years, according to Crunchbase, and more money going into megarounds for AI companies.

Not all seed investors are alike. Some prefer defense tech while others like to bet on consumer tech. Some look for specific founding teams while others only invest in repeat founders.

Now in its fifth year, the Seed 100 list celebrates these figures — the sage dealmakers who provide the essential first push to startups that go on to become some of the greatest successes in the tech world. This list is compiled using data analysis supplied by Termina, a software platform spun out of Tribe Capital. Read the full methodology behind the list.

1. Kevin Mahaffey

Kevin Mahaffey

Founder, SNR Ventures

Notable investments: Sourcegraph, Benchling, Coco Robotics, Mesh, XOPS, Sublime Security

City: San Francisco

Mahaffey has experience as both a founder and investor. He started the mobile-security company Lookout when he was 22 years old. After an initial spate of rejections from venture capital firms, Lookout would close investments from venture capitalists like Chris Sacca and Vinod Khosla at a $1.7 billion valuation.

As a seed investor, Mahaffey has helped mint nearly a dozen unicorns like Lattice and People.ai. “Nothing gets me more excited than spending time with founders creating businesses that seem audacious today — but will be obvious in retrospect,” Mahaffey told BI. “I firmly believe that different + difficult = defensible.”

2. Gaurav Jain

Gaurav Jain

Cofounder and managing partner, Afore Capital

Notable investments: Cruise Automation, Firebase

City: San Francisco

Jain is all about getting into startups as early as possible. In fact, his firm, Afore Capital, has the thesis that no investment is “too early,” and they’d like to get involved well before other VCs. Jain has been running the $500 million venture fund Afore since 2016, and the firm raised a $185 million fourth fund in February 2025 to continue investing in pre-seed startups.

In addition to Afore, Jain has made more than two dozen seed investments through Founder Collective, a seed-stage VC fund where he was a principal from 2012 to 2016. Those bets include Airtable, Firebase, which was acquired by Google, and Cruise Automation, which was acquired by General Motors for more than $1 billion.

3. Naval Ravikant

Naval Ravikant

Entrepreneur

Notable investments: AtoB, Hebbia, Korbit, Pipe, Clearbit

City: Palo Alto, California

Ravikant has etched his mark on Silicon Valley for more than two decades. He’s perhaps best known for cofounding AngelList in 2010, the fundraising platform that helps investors connect and write checks to early-stage startups. Before that, he co-launched the consumer product review site Epinions, which later merged with another site to become the consumer price comparison website Shopping.com.

In 2007, Ravikant founded the early-stage venture firm The Hit Forge. He also made early bets on companies such as Twitter, now X, and Uber. He’s gone on to found several other companies and funds and has been a prolific angel investor in startups, including Substack, Perplexity, and Pipe.

4. Walter Kortschak

Walter Kortschak

Title: Partner, Firestreak Ventures

Notable investments: Palantir, Stripe, Robinhood, Databricks, Perplexity, Anthropic

City: Aspen, Colorado and London

Kortschak’s 39 years in venture capital have been full of successful bets on companies like E-Tek Dynamics, Finisar, and McAfee. He spent more than three decades at Summit Partners, where he focused on growth-stage investing. As a private investor, he was an early investor in Trade Desk, Palantir, Stripe, and Robinhood.

“Our north star is assessing a founder’s ambition to take a disruptive big idea and imagine the potential to build a generational company,” Kortschak told BI.

He helped launch SignalFire in 2013 and started Firestreak in 2022 to invest his personal capital and write pre-seed and seed-stage checks between $50,000 and $150,000 to startups focusing on infrastructure; AI and machine learning; data; and open-source, cybersecurity, and developer tools. He has invested in buzzy AI and data startups like Anthropic, Cohere, Databricks, Hugging Face, MotherDuck, and Perplexity.

5. Bradley Horowitz

Bradley Horowitz

General partner, Wisdom Ventures

Notable investments: OpenAI, Anthropic, Slack, Miro, Ramp, Scale AI

City: Palo Alto, California

As vice president of product at Google for 15 years, Horowitz led teams that developed some of the company’s most important offerings, such as Gmail, Google Docs, and Google News.

He left Google in 2023 to invest full time through Wisdom Ventures and as an angel investor.

Horowitz has backed more than 150 startups and already boasts four decacorns, startups valued at more than $10 billion. Those include Scale AI, Miro, Applied Intuition, and Ramp. Through Wisdom Ventures, he is also one of the few investors in two of the biggest LLM’s, OpenAI and Anthropic.

Last year, he joined the board of Circle, a global fintech company that facilitates payments. He also saw his early investment in Coda, a productivity startup, pay off when it was acquired by Grammarly.

6. Darian Shirazi

Darian Shirazi

Managing partner, Gradient Ventures

Notable investments: Gigs, Legora, Krea, Numeral, Range, Writer

City: San Francisco

Leaping 12 spots up the ranking this year, Shirazi was recently elevated to managing partner at Gradient Ventures, Google’s artificial intelligence-focused venture fund.

Shirazi seeks out companies that harness machine learning to disrupt and reshape traditional industries, such as Legora for the legal industry and Numeral for fintechs and banks.

Shirazi famously became the first intern for Facebook when he was 19. Then he built a marketing tech startup, Radius, before selling it to the fintech startup Kabbage in 2019. Since then, he’s mobilized his own social network to invest in breakthrough companies.

7. Jeremy Yap

Jeremy Yap

Angel investor

Notable investments: Maven Clinic, Stepful, Corti, Oura, Mojo, Meeno

City: San Francisco and London

Yap has been a full-time angel investor for over a decade, since leaving his day job in derivatives trading at Merrill Lynch in 2012. He’s invested in more than 100 startups and sits on the advisory boards of the travel management company TravelBank and the fund of funds Cendana Capital.

He splits his time between San Francisco and Europe. He’s backed startups such as the women’s healthcare company Maven Clinic, which raised $125 million in Series F funding at a $1.7 billion valuation in October, and the smart ring maker Oura, which raised a $200 million Series D round at a $5.2 billion valuation in December.

8. Sam Altman

Sam Altman, Chris Jung/NurPhoto

Title: Cofounder and CEO, OpenAI

Notable investments: Asana, Cerebras, Reddit, Stripe, Uber

City: San Francisco

Before he was the J. Robert Oppenheimer of our age, Altman was a red-letter startup investor.

Since Altman left his post at Y Combinator in 2019, he’s plunged his personal wealth and outside capital into companies working on nuclear energy (Oklo and Helion), supersonic passenger planes (Boom Supersonic), and therapies to delay aging (Retro Biosciences).

While OpenAI made Altman famous, his investments have made him a billionaire. As an investor in Reddit, Altman and his related funds saw a cash windfall from its initial public offering last year.

9. Garry Tan

Garry Tan, Courtesy of Y Combinator

President and CEO, Y Combinator

Notable investments: Coinbase, Cruise, Flexport, Instacart, Rippling, Truepill

City: San Francisco

Tan plays father to thousands of startups a year as the president of Y Combinator, but it was his previous investments at Initialized Capital that made him a top-ranked seed investor. He funded Coinbase in 2012. He invested $300,000 and ended up with shares worth over $2.4 billion.

Since taking over Y Combinator in 2022, Tan has ushered in a new, harder-charging era at the accelerator. It moved its headquarters to San Francisco, doubled the number of startup cohorts it supports a year, and steered the latest cohort to become the most profitable in the firm’s history.

10. Lachy Groom

Lachy Groom

Cofounder, Physical Intelligence

Notable investments: Notion, Figma, Anduril, Deel, Humane

City: San Francisco

Groom was an early Stripe employee and led Stripe Issuing, the team in charge of virtual and physical cards. He left the fintech in 2018 and last year cofounded Physical Intelligence, an AI startup with the goal of bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world via spatially intelligent robots. The startup raised $400 million last fall from Jeff Bezos, Thrive Capital, and OpenAI.

Groom is also an angel investor, having raised around $100 million in 2020 for his second fund, LFG II. His investments include Notion and Figma.

11. Keith Rabois

Keith Rabois

Managing director, Khosla Ventures

Notable investments: YouTube, Airbnb, Lyft, Palantir, DoorDash, Ramp

Location: Miami

Rabois made a fortune investing his own money in iconic companies like YouTube, Airbnb, and Palantir. He returned to Khosla Ventures last year after four years at Founders Fund. During his first stint at Khosla, Rabois led the firm’s early investments in DoorDash, Affirm, and Stripe.

A vocal proponent of Miami’s tech scene, Rabois also cofounded and still serves as CEO of OpenStore, a Khosla-backed e-commerce company.

12. Daniel Gross

Daniel Gross

Cofounder, Safe Superintelligence Inc.

Notable investments: Instacart, Coinbase, GitHub, Figma, Notion, Deel, Rippling

City: San Francisco

Gross has invested in multiple startups, often with his fellow Seed 100 honoree Nat Friedman, with whom he started the billion-dollar AI fund C2 Investment, where the two acquired more than 2,000 Nvidia chips to distribute alongside venture funds. He’s backed big companies such as Instacart, Notion, and Figma, as well as Gusto and Character.ai.

Gross is also a serial entrepreneur and currently working on Safe Superintelligence, a startup he cofounded with Ilya Sutskever and Daniel Levy that’s so far raised $1 billion from NFDG, a16z, Sequoia, and other investors. He previously cofounded Cue, a search engine that was acquired by Apple in 2013.

Gross is a former Y Combinator partner who started the accelerator’s AI program.

13. Arjun Sethi

Arjun Sethi

Chairman, Tribe Capital; co-CEO, Kraken

Notable investments: Apollo, Applied Intuition, Block, Carta, Snapchat

City: Menlo Park, California

Instead of relying on gut feelings alone, Sethi takes a data-driven approach to seed investing. His firm, Tribe Capital, uses artificial intelligence and data analysis to predict which early-stage companies are most likely to become unicorns.

This approach has led to breakout investments such as Applied Intuition, the autonomous vehicle software company that was last valued at $6 billion, and Rippling, the workforce management software company that’s raised nearly $1 billion in equity financing to date.

Sethi added a new role last year as co-chief executive of the cryptocurrency platform Kraken.

14. Gokul Rajaram

Gokul Rajaram

Founding partner, Marathon Management Partners

Notable investments: Deel, BetterUp, Figma, Printify, Boon, Atlas

Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Rajaram was an early employee at Alphabet and Meta and most recently, an executive at DoorDash. He now uses his wallet and expertise to help startups scale. After years of angel investing, he plans to write checks through a new firm, Marathon Management Partners.

“I look for relentless and obsessed founders who are ambitious and aggressive, who have unique insights into their space, understand what takes to win in their space better than anyone on the planet, and who want to build a generational company,” Rajaram told BI.

Rajaram also sits on the boards of Coinbase, Pinterest, and Trade Desk.

15. Dalton Caldwell

Dalton Caldwell, Courtesy of Y Combinator

Managing partner, Y Combinator

Notable investments: Brex, PostHog, Rappi, Retool, Whatnot, Zip

City: San Francisco

During his time at Y Combinator, Caldwell has put his stamp on more than 35 unicorn startups, including DoorDash, Flexport, Brex, and Deel. A former founder himself, Caldwell joined the storied startup accelerator as a full-time partner in 2014. Since then, he’s racked up more than 6,500 office hours with founders over the course of 25 batches.

Caldwell is also one of the accelerator’s gatekeepers, overseeing the admissions process. He’s said that two things he looks for in an application are technical prowess and a clear explanation of why the founder is the right person to start the business of their choosing.

16. Alexis Ohanian

Alexis Ohanian, Kaitlyn Morris/WireImage

General partner and founder, Seven Seven Six

Notable investments: Angel City Football Club, Feastables, Flock Safety, Riverside, Ro

City: Jupiter, Florida

Before he married a tennis superstar and became Mr. Serena Williams, Ohanian was known as the “mayor of the internet.” He cofounded Reddit and scaled it to become one of the most popular websites worldwide. Since he sold the company, he’s plunged his personal wealth and venture funds into companies building in the blockchain, software, and healthcare industries.

In 2020, Ohanian left the firm he cofounded, Initialized Capital, to launch yet another venture fund. Between Ohanian and his Seven Seven Six founding partner, Katelin Holloway, the fund has backed a number of startups led by women and people of color, including the group coaching platform The Grand and maternal telehealth solution ​​Poppy Seed Health.

17. Ben Ling

Ben Ling

Founder and general partner, Bling Capital

Notable investments: GitHub, Rippling, Airtable, Spellbook, Noetica

City: Miami

Ling was a general partner at Khosla Ventures before launching Bling Capital, a VC firm focused on seed and Series A investments. Ling has also served in senior operating roles at Google, YouTube, and Facebook and was an active angel investor, nabbing early stakes in Airtable, Lyft, Square, Palantir, and Quora.

In 2024, one of Bling’s early investments, Printify, grew 100 times the firm’s entry valuation and merged with Printful to become one of the largest print-on-demand platforms globally. As for what Ling looks for in an entrepreneur, he said he seeks a founder with “the right level of obstinance, an earned secret about a space, and an innate drive to learn it all.”

18. Jon Soberg

Jon Soberg

CEO and managing partner, MS&AD Ventures

Notable investments: Yotpo, Mercury, Flex, Rubrik, ValidMind, Plus Platform

City: Palo Alto, California

This is Soberg’s fifth straight year on the Seed 100, a position he’s maintained due in part to the seven IPOs and 19 unicorns in his portfolio. His many bets include the marketing platform Yotpo, the business banking fintech Mercury, and Rubrik, the cloud cybersecurity company that went public last year.

Soberg has been leading MS&AD Ventures since 2018. His firm focuses on early-stage startups and invests across insuretech, AI, Internet of Things, big data, and cybersecurity.

For Soberg, success means finding companies that can weather tough conditions — not just shine when the market is great.

“Building in tougher markets makes people focus extra diligently, and we see really responsible growth, great unit economics, and people tackling very tough problems,” he told BI.

19. Julian Counihan

Julian Counihan

Title: General partner, Schematic Ventures

Notable Investments: Altana, Harbinger, Plus One Robotics, P-1 AI, Infinitform, Chassy

City: San Francisco

Counihan is a general partner at Schematic Ventures, an early-stage firm that invests in supply chain, manufacturing, and enterprise software startups. Before Schematic, Counihan worked at Red Sea Ventures, where he invested in industrial hardware and supply chain companies, and in tech investment banking at Citi. He started his career as a software engineer at Fortna, a logistics company.

“The first wave of industrial startups brought world-class engineering talent into supply chain and manufacturing,” Counihan told BI. “Engineers from those companies are now launching startups building from first principles and creating entirely new systems for how the physical world operates. There is more energy, talent and capital working on industrial technology than ever before.”

20. Micah Rosenbloom

Micah Rosenbloom

Managing partner, Founder Collective

Notable investments: Hawthorne, Kasa, Lovevery, Socure, Talos, Verkada,

City: New York

Rosenbloom and his firm, Founder Collective, are the picture of founder-friendly investors. The seed-stage shop forsakes pro rata rights, helping to avoid “signaling risk” in the market, and eggs on founders to raise as little money as possible, even if it hurts the markups on their deals.

Rosenbloom, a three-time founder himself, invests across sectors and has backed everything from security systems to pet DNA tests. He co-leads Founder Collective’s New York office.

21. Ed Sim

Ed Sim, Courtesy of Boldstart Ventures

Founder and general partner, Boldstart Ventures

Notable investments: BigID, Common Paper, Kustomer, Protect AI, Snyk, Tessl

City: Miami

Sim thrives in one of the riskiest corners of the market: He invests in startups before they even incorporate. The self-described “inception investor” prefers to roll up his sleeves and work with founders to shape their ideas, close their first hires, and rally the all-important early adopters.

While Sim’s portfolio has produced monster exits such as Kustomer’s $1 billion sale to Meta, his biggest successes may be ahead. In 2016, Sim wrote one of the first checks into Snyk, the developer-security unicorn startup that’s eyeing a potential initial public offering, TechCrunch reported. He also backed Snyk founder Guy Podjarny’s latest company, the white-hot coding platform Tessl.

22. Scott Belsky

Scott Belsky

Partner, A24

Notable investments: Airtable, Clay, KoBold, Meter, Pinterest, Ramp, Uber

City: New York

A longtime Adobe executive and creative virtuoso, Belsky left the design software company earlier this year for the role of a lifetime: He joined A24 as a partner, leading tech and innovation projects at the independent studio. In a social media post announcing the move, Belsky pledged to “continue supporting founders as an investor/product advisor” and board member.

One of the bright spots in his portfolio is the fintech Ramp. Founded in 2019, the corporate card and software provider boasts hundreds of millions in annualized revenue and a $13 billion valuation.

23. Ryan Hoover

Ryan Hoover

Founder and general partner, Weekend Fund

Notable investments: Atlys, Deel, Extropic, Justpoint, Luminai, Pipe, Truemed

City: Miami, New York, and San Francisco

Hoover built the launchpad for startups with Product Hunt, a website for sharing and discovering the latest mobile apps and tech creations. Now, as an investor, he’s transformed his network of thousands of founders into a sourcing engine for finding and investing in the next big thing.

His portfolio includes Deel, the human resources software provider that closed $30 million in new funding earlier this year, and the embedded finance platform Pipe.

24. Avichal Garg

Avichal Garg

Managing partner, Electric Capital

Notable investments: Aven, Bitwise, Figma, Kraken, Notion, Pulley

City: Palo Alto, California

The spectacular collapse of crypto exchanges like FTX and Binance has cast a long shadow over the broader crypto market. But Garg and the fund he founded, Electric Capital, are continuing to bet big on decentralized and blockchain-based technologies.

In addition to his work with Electric, Garg has been a successful angel investor for over a decade, having been an early backer of Cruise, Deel, and Figma. He also worked at both Facebook and Google and founded multiple startups of his own before getting into investing.

25. Laura Rippy

Laura Rippy

Managing partner and board member, Alumni Ventures

Notable investments: Daydream, Rent App, Barnwell Bio, Atomic Supply, TRM Labs, Believer.gg,

City: Boston

Rippy says that when the world is chaotic, startups are the most nimble, which is why she’s excited for this year.

“The pattern of 2025 so far is highly talented teams tackling big opportunities,” she told BI.

Based in Boston, Rippy has built a large network of school-related founders and investors. She runs two school-centric funds, Green D at Dartmouth College and Yard Ventures at Harvard, and she’s also the managing partner of Alumni Ventures, one of the most active VC firms in the world. Alumni brings VC investing to individual investors’ portfolios and manages more than 650,000 members.

Prior to joining Alumni Ventures in 2017, Rippy spent 14 years at the private family office Ripplecreek Partners.

26. William Hockey

William Hockey

CEO, Column

Notable investments: Deel, Metronome, Tropic, TryNow, Middesk

City: San Francisco

Hockey worked briefly in consulting at Bain before cofounding Plaid, a fintech infrastructure company, with Zach Perret in 2012. He spent eight years at Plaid as the president and chief technology officer before leaving in 2019.

In 2022, he announced what he’d been building since leaving Plaid: a federally chartered banking startup called Column that allows developers to build financial products faster. Hockey is the cofounder and CEO of Column. He’s also a prolific fintech investor who’s backed companies such as Moov and the payroll startup Deel, according to PitchBook data.

27. Alex Iskold

Alex Iskold

Founder and partner, 2048 Ventures

Notable investments: GlossGenius, Aerodome, Gorgias, Mantl, Healthie, Nomic Bio

City: New York

Iskold immigrated to the US from Ukraine when he was 19 and has built a long and successful career as a founder, software engineer, and investor in over 150 startups. He’s also a prolific blogger on his site Startup Hacks. Earlier this year, one of 2048 Ventures’ early bets, the fintech Mantl, was acquired by Alkemi for $400 million. “AI was and is an arms race. Instead of horizontal plays, we focus on the vertical value capture, full solves, and strong data moats,” Iskold told BI. “On the macro level, capital is scarce both for startups and emerging managers. We view this as a very positive net dynamic for the space as there is less noise in general and more value creation.”

28. Nat Friedman

Nat Friedman, Courtesy of Xamarin

Former CEO, GitHub

Notable investments: Figma, Stripe, Deel, Magic, Perplexity, The Bot Company

City: San Francisco

A multi-time founder, Friedman’s second software startup was acquired by Microsoft in 2016, paving the way for him to become GitHub’s CEO in 2018, when the tech giant bought the coding company for $7.5 billion. Friedman stayed in the top spot at GitHub for three years and stepped down in 2021.

Over the past few years, Friedman has become well known as an investor backing startups like Figma, Stripe, and Perplexity, and often cowrites checks with Daniel Gross. The two acquired more than 2,000 Nvidia chips and distributed them along with venture funding through one of their funds, the billion-dollar AI fund C2 Investment.

29. Ali Partovi

Ali Partovi

Founder and CEO, Neo

Notable investments: Anysphere, Kalshi, Vanta, Cobot, Bluesky, Chai Discovery

City: San Francisco

Partovi sold his previous company to Microsoft for $265 million and was an early investor and advisor to dozens of startups, including Zappos and Airbnb. He now runs Neo, a startup incubator, venture fund, and professional network. Neo identifies promising individuals, often while they’re still in school, and provides them with mentorship, education, job placement, and, in some cases, investment.

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One of Neo’s graduates, the AI coding startup and Cursor developer Anysphere, recently raised over $100 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. The startup also became one of the fastest companies ever to reach $100 million in annualized revenue, Partovi, who was its first investor, said. “At Neo, we’re obsessed with investing in people. Our Neo Scholars program identifies future tech leaders when they’re still in college, long before they start a company.”

30. Max Mullen

Max Mullen

Title: Cofounder, Instacart

Notable investments: Census, Alt, Caper, Verifiable, Pelago

City: San Francisco

Mullen cofounded the delivery giant Instacart, which went public in 2023. He’s also been a prolific seed investor, backing over 100 startups, including Lattice, Checkr, Omni, Mercury, and Pelago. He’s also backed a number of startups founded by Instacart alums, such as Anomalo, Ascend, Cabal, Highstock, and Monocle. Among Mullen’s advice to founders: “Every minute counts.”

31. Salil Deshpande

Salil Deshpande

General partner, Uncorrelated Ventures

Notable investments: Redis, Fingerprint, Astranis, Dynatrace, MuleSoft, Stashfin

City: Palo Alto, California

Deshpande has generally preferred to focus on technical founders who are building companies in infrastructure software. As it has become clear that AI can write software code, he has focused more on hardware and space investments, which he sees are more defensible.

Two of his biggest wins have been Redis, a data platform he says crossed $300 million in annual recurring revenue, and LucidLink, a cloud storage tool he says he invested in before it had any product and has now crossed $40 million in ARR.

Prior to founding Uncorrelated Ventures, Deshpande worked at Bain Capital Ventures for seven years and Bay Partners for seven years before that.

32. Shruti Gandhi

Shruti Gandhi, Courtesy of Array Ventures

Title: Founder and general partner, Array Ventures

Notable investments: Capsule, Eventual Computing, Mozart Data, Placer.ai, Rad AI, Runway.team

City: San Francisco

Gandhi’s track record shows she gets results for limited partners. In under a decade, the solo capitalist has returned her first $7 million fund at a fivefold multiple, with more companies still waiting to exit. A stream of acquisitions has sped along those distributions, including Simility, a fraud-detection company which sold to PayPal in 2018, just two years after Gandhi invested.

As a one-time startup founder, Gandhi decided to raise a fund in 2016 because she saw a need for more investors who rolled up their sleeves at the seed stage. Her fund, Array Ventures, helps technical founders close early sales and develop their go-to-market sales strategy.

33. Ramy Adeeb

Ramy Adeeb, Courtesy of 1984 Ventures

Founder and general partner, 1984 Ventures

Notable investments: PostHog, Postscript, BuildOps, Collaborative Robotics, Fay Nutrition, Cline

City: New York

Adeeb was hooked on the startup world after joining the speech recognition tech startup TellMe Networks in 2000 as the company’s head of enterprise engineering. Seven years later, TellMe sold to Microsoft, and Adeeb spent two years as a principal at Khosla Ventures before starting his own company. He sold that venture, the web curation tool Snip.it, to Yahoo in 2013.

Adeeb founded 1984 Ventures in 2017 to invest in early-stage tech startups. This year, he’s particularly excited about his investment in Cline, which he said was stealing away customers from highly funded AI coding editors like Anysphere’s Cursor and Windsurf for its competing product, built by a single engineer. Cline hadn’t publicly announced its funding as of April.

Another of Adeeb’s investments, the commercial contracting software BuildOps, raised a $127 million Series C round in March at a valuation of $1 billion.

34. Elad Gil

Elad Gil

Angel investor

Notable investments: Anduril, Braintrust, Harvey, Notion, Perplexity

City: San Francisco

When it comes to evaluating seed-stage startups, Gil says that the potential for product-market fit is the most important thing he’s looking for when deciding whether to write a check.

This strategy has proved fruitful, with Gil making early bets on AI legaltech darling Harvey, the workplace productivity suite Notion, the AI search engine Perplexity, and the defense tech company Anduril, along with several other buzzy startups that have since become heavy hitters.

A longtime angel investor, Gil has also written checks for Airbnb, Coinbase, Figma, Deel, and a slew of other startups. He was previously an executive at Twitter, now known as X, and worked in product management at Google.

35. Kunal Bahl

Kunal Bahl

Cofounder, Titan Capital

Notable investments: Ola, Urban Company, Mamaearth, OfBusiness, Unicommerce, Credgenics

City: New Delhi

Bahl cofounded one of India’s hottest startups, Snapdeal, which was once valued at $6.5 billion. Snapdeal’s parent company, the SoftBank-backed Unicommerce, went public in 2024 and was the first software-as-a-service company to go public in India. When the company went public, it was the second-most-subscribed IPO of the year.

“Outside of the usual help a portfolio company would expect from any seasoned investor, one area we are very focused on is ensuring discipline around maintaining a thoughtful, well-structured monthly MIS that is discussed within the startup’s leadership and with our team at Titan Capital,” Bahl said, referring to a management information system report. “This ensures everyone — internal and external stakeholders — is always on the same page with respect to the direction the business is headed.”

36. Marlon Nichols

Marlon Nichols

Cofounder and managing general partner, MaC Venture Capital

Notable investments: Thrive Market, Pipe, Finesse, Purestream, Seed Health, Truebill

City: Los Angeles

​​Nichols started his career as an operator at a seed-stage startup, helped scale it, and then transitioned to consulting. But while that career was fulfilling, he felt that something was missing. He wanted to collaborate with executives and decision-makers and be close to the latest technology. For Nichols, the answer was venture capital. He started in VC at Intel Capital and then cofounded Cross Culture Ventures. That firm then merged with another to form MaC Venture Capital in 2021, which raised $110 million for its first fund and followed that up with a second $203 million fund.

In 2024, Mac closed on another $150 million fund, its third in four years. Nichols said this “reflects our impact as a seed-stage firm, the strength of our thesis and the founders we back” and “cements MaC as one of the largest seed-stage firms in Los Angeles and North America.”

Nicholas said the new fund had allowed the firm to continue to expand in areas such as energy, sustainability, defense, and hard tech, sectors the firm believes “are at an inflection point and poised for outsized impact and returns.”

37. Marc Benioff

Marc Benioff, Courtesy of Salesforce

Chairman and CEO, Salesforce

Notable Investments: Wiz, You.com, Artera AI, Warp, LearnLux, Zebra Medical Vision

City: San Francisco

Benioff caught the startup bug as a summer intern at Apple in the summer of 1984, writing assembly code for the Macintosh 68000 Development System. Fast-forward a few decades, and he’s running Salesforce, a 75,000-person Fortune 500 giant.

Seed stage investing isn’t his day job, but Benioff says he’s drawn to founders because he relates to them. He estimates that over the past 20 years, he’s backed more than 200 seed-stage startups. Founders in his portfolio don’t just get cash — they also get access to his playbook for scaling and his deep network of executives and operators.

The key signal he looks for in a founder? Shared vision. “Do I have a complementary vision to how they see their own company?” Benioff told BI. “Many of these people are visionaries. They’re seeing things that don’t exist. Am I also able to see what they’re seeing?”

Beyond his personal investing, Benioff also oversees TIME Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. One of its biggest wins: a roughly $600 million return from Wiz’s $32 billion acquisition, Benioff told BI. Salesforce Ventures first invested in the cybersecurity startup’s Series B in June 2021.

38. Scott Dorsey

Scott Dorsey

Managing partner, High Alpha

Notable investments: Narvar, Zylo, Logik.ai, Lessonly, Superside

City: Indianapolis

Dorsey has been at the helm of the Indianapolis-based venture studio High Alpha since 2015, which he cofounded with his fellow Salesforce alums Eric Tobias and Mike Fitzgerald and the serial entrepreneur Kristian Andersen. Before getting into venture, Dorsey cofounded the marketing SaaS company ExactTarget and led the company as its CEO through an IPO, public market debut, and subsequent sale to Salesforce for $2.5 billion in 2013. Dorsey said that experience as a founder and longtime CEO had served him well as he guides the next generation of entrepreneurs.

“With my ExactTarget journey from startup founder to public company CEO, I pride myself on being a great partner and sounding board to our founders,” he told BI. “I enjoy contributing to important strategic decisions as well as supporting founders with the everyday challenges they encounter.”

39. Alex McIsaac

Alex McIsaac of Northside Ventures Alex McIsaac

Founder and general partner, Northside Ventures

Notable investments: Ledn, AutoLeap, Moonvalley, Float Financial, Clutch

City: Toronto

Before launching Northside Ventures, a pre-seed and seed stage firm based in Toronto, McIsaac cofounded an energy storage-focused cleantech startup in 2012 that Blackstone Energy bought in 2018. He transitioned to VC and landed at BDC Capital, the largest venture firm in Canada, where he worked on its seed and women in tech funds. He also led the Canadian investment practice as a partner at Global Founders Capital, a European venture firm.

40. Rohit Bansal

Rohit Bansal, Courtesy of Titan Capital

Cofounder, Titan Capital

Notable investments: Ola, Urban Company, Mamaearth, OfBusiness, Unicommerce, Credgenics, Giva, Shadowfax

City: New Delhi

Bansal, along with his fellow Seed 100 honoree Kunal Bahl, cofounded one of India’s hottest startups, Snapdeal, which was once valued at $6.5 billion. The SoftBank-backed Unicommerce, also cofounded by Bansal and Snapdeal’s parent company, went public in 2024 and was the first SaaS company to go public in India.

“India is on a rising tide — we will be the third-largest economy very soon — and all boats are being lifted in this significant and positive evolution the country is going through,” Bansal said. “We are witnessing tremendous innovation in AI applications being built in India, not only for the Indian market but also for global customers. We anticipate this trend to accelerate in 2025.”

41. Anshu Sharma

Anshu Sharma, Courtesy of Skyflow

Cofounder and CEO, Skyflow

Notable investments: AirMDR, Ema, Ikigai Labs, Zus Health, Zinc Labs, Fold Health

City: Mountain View, California

Sharma has been writing checks to early-stage startups for over a decade, but his investing motto has remained the same: Always be closest to the smartest people you know.

This rule scored him an investment in Nutanix, as he knew the cloud-computing startup’s CEO from his years at Oracle. Nutanix went public in 2016, valued at over $5 billion.

In the past year, he wrote checks to AirMDR, an AI for security company, as well as Ema, an agentic AI startup building universal AI employees. Two of his early investments, Razorpay and Tekion, are seen as likely IPO candidates.

As a three-time founder, Sharma relates personally to the entrepreneurs he works with. Barracuda Networks bought his company Clearedin in January 2022.

42. Joe Montana

Joe Montana, Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images

Title: Managing partner, Liquid 2 Ventures

Notable Investments: GitLab, Rippling, Applied Intuition, Anduril, Mercury, Reducto

City: San Francisco

After a Hall of Fame career as quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, Montana cofounded HRJ Capital, a fund of funds, in 1999. After a few years of angel investing and learning from the “super angel” Ron Conway, Montana launched Liquid 2 Ventures, which invests in industries as varied as B2B SaaS and defense tech, in 2015. The firm recently closed on a new $100 million fund, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Montana says that, like football, venture capital is a long game: “At Liquid 2 Ventures, we’re committed to being lifetime investors,” he told BI. “We look for potential in founders, and aim to be a partner to them throughout their lifetime, not just for one lifecycle. Many of the most successful companies in our portfolio are from founders who are on their second or third company.”

43. Dylan Field

Dylan Field, Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch

CEO, Figma

Notable investments: Warp, Pattern Biosciences, Retro, Conception Bio, The Browser Company

City: Penngrove, California

Field has carved out time to make angel investments across different verticals, including the DNA startup Pattern Biosciences and The Browser Company, a consumer startup building the internet browser, Arc.

He’s vetting startups and writing checks in addition to running Figma, the late-stage collaborative design startup he cofounded in 2012 with Evan Wallace. The company has raised more than $300 million from VCs and was in talks to be acquired by Adobe for $20 billion in 2022 before the deal fell apart. In April, the company confidentially filed draft paperwork for an IPO.

44. Justin Mateen

Justin Mateen

Title: Founding partner, Jam Fund

Notable investments: Deel, Hadrian, Kalshi, Radiant Nuclear, Rain AI, Varda

City: Los Angeles

Mateen is best known as the cofounder of Tinder, the OG dating app. Now, he swipes right on startups as a savvy early investor in companies like Lyft, which went public in 2019 at a $24 billion valuation, and Brex, which had a $12.3 billion valuation in January 2022.

Mateen told BI he looks for founders with “serious domain expertise who have something to prove to themselves, the world, or someone they care deeply about” and companies that are disrupting large markets and have a clear path to positive-unit economics at scale.

45. Ali Tamaseb

Ali Tamaseb

General partner, DCVC

Notable investments: StarkWare, ElectronX, Odyssey, Earth AI, Chai Discovery

City: Palo Alto, California

Before landing at DCVC, Tamaseb cofounded and was the CEO of Blocks Wearables, a deep-tech hardware startup that developed wearables for industrial use. He also runs the networking community Super Founders Club, which includes founders with prior meaningful exits and IPOs. Tamaseb told BI that in the past year, he’d been able to grow the community “2x.” It allows Tamaseb to get access and find the best and most promising founders.

“My style of investing is 100% founder-first and founder-centric,” he said. “I use data, and an institutional way of creating networks to find, fund, and partner with the best founders of our generation at pre-seed, seed, A, and beyond.”

46. Sheel Mohnot

Sheel Mohnot

Cofounder and general partner, Better Tomorrow Ventures

Notable investments: Mercury, Kin, Unit, Relay, Coast, Basis

City: San Francisco

Mohnot has been featured on the Seed 100 every year since its inception four years ago. In 2020, he cofounded Better Tomorrow Ventures, a fintech venture firm. Before that, he was an angel investor in companies such as Flexport and Ironclad. He’s been investing in fintech since 2015 and cofounded the food company Thistle before starting his venture capital career.

Mohnot is excited about the prospects for fintech this year. “We had 10 markups over the course of a month earlier this year — fintech is back!” he said.

His firm specializes in helping startups with sales, recruiting, business development, community building, and raising money for the next round of funding, he said, adding that it had introduced founders to their next-round investors more than 90% of the time.

47. Nick Candito

Nick Candito

Cofounder and managing director, ACOF

Notable investments: Carta, TrueMed, Metafy, Augment Markets, Atomic Insights, BRM

Cities: Austin and San Francisco

Candito started his career as an operator in the Boston startup scene before heading west to join the sales data startup RelateIQ, which Salesforce bought for $390 million in 2014. He then founded and served as the CEO of the cloud-based enterprise startup Progressly, which Box acquired in 2018.

Candito spent some time at Box and other startups before moving on to investing in startups, including the data importing company Flatfile. He also launched the firm Netshire Technology, and in 2020, he cofounded Angel Collective Opportunity Fund, of which he’s the managing director. ACOF helps emerging managers back startups through a pooled investment fund.

Candito said he was very excited about his investments over the past year in several AI infrastructure startups, including Gable, Distributional, Letta (formerly MemGPT), TensorWave, and Fiddler AI .

48. Eric Tarczynski

Eric Tarczynski

Title: Founder and managing partner, Contrary

Notable investments: Ramp, Zepto, Moment, Doss, Hermeus, Anduril

City: San Francisco

Tarczynski founded Contrary in 2017 to identify exceptional entrepreneurs early, sometimes before they’ve even begun their next venture. The firm, which invests in early-stage tech companies, is backed by the founders of tech powerhouses such as Tesla, Reddit, Facebook, and Airbnb. Contrary’s portfolio includes tech unicorns such as the defense tech startup Anduril, the Indian grocery delivery company Zepto, and the fintech platform Ramp.

Tarczynski began his own entrepreneurial journey in 2012 with Checkit, a restaurant mobile payments startup that folded after two years of competing against Toast — which Tarczynski describes as an invaluable learning opportunity. He was also an early employee at the social platform Kamcord, whose team was acqui-hired by Lyft in 2017.

49. Jackson Moses

Jackson Moses

Title: Founder and managing partner, Silent Ventures

Notable investments: Saronic, CHAOS, Armada, Gallatin AI, Firestorm, UNION

City: Dallas

Moses is a prolific defense tech investor, with some of the buzziest startups, such as the autonomous maritime company Saronic Technologies and the defense detection startup CHAOS, in his portfolio. He started his venture fund, which invests in aerospace, defense, and national security companies, in late 2022.

Previously, Moses was an angel investor across multiple verticals and cut his teeth starting companies of his own: He founded MainStreet, a corporate tax software company, and Spectrum Labs, a content moderation startup.

50. Roger Chen

Roger Chen, Courtesy of Silverton Partners

Title: Partner, Silverton Partners

Notable investments: Apprentice, Billie, Docjuris, Grocery TV, Rx Redefined, Valid8 Financial

City: Austin

Chen moved to Austin six years ago to become a partner at the early-stage investment firm Silverton Partners. He told BI that he tends to “gravitate toward category creators” when evaluating a startup before investing.

That’s evidenced by his portfolio of local software and consumer businesses that have become the envy of Silicon Hills, with stakes in Apprentice, Fama, and Grocery TV (formerly Clerk). Chen also received a sizable exit with Edgewell’s purchase of the razor maker Billie for $310 million in 2021.

Chen said that in the past year, his portfolio company Rx Redefined had “performed consistently ahead of plan and capped off the year with a Series B.” And he’s very excited about another of his portfolio companies, the legaltech AI startup DocJuris, which he said “has been able to out-innovate and win deals against peers with significantly more funding.”

51. Martin Tobias

Martin Tobias

Managing partner, Incisive Ventures

Notable investments: Jeeves, OpenSea, Enable, Yassir, Portside, LMNT

City: Seattle

Tobias is a serial entrepreneur and investor who’s been in the game for nearly 30 years. After stints at Accenture and Microsoft, Tobias ventured out on his own to launch two companies, and he led several others during the early 2000s. He says that over the years, he’s invested in more than 250 companies as an angel investor, and he’s a limited partner in at least a dozen venture funds.

Tobias started Incisive Ventures, a pre-seed fund based in Seattle, in 2020, and he was an early investor in the fintech startup Jeeves, the NFT platform OpenSea, and the electrolyte drink mix company LMNT. He’s particularly excited about the recent wave of AI advancement and all of the startups capitalizing on the technology. “I am most excited about the companies that are seizing this AI moment to deliver whole new categories of B2B applications versus AI paste-ons,” he said.

52. Bill Trenchard

Bill Trenchard

Partner, First Round Capital

Notable investments: Uber, Looker, Verkada, EvolutionIQ, Flexport, Dyna Robotics

Cities: San Francisco and Seattle

Trenchard was an entrepreneur for more than two decades, starting five companies and backing many more as an angel investor. In 2012, he joined First Round Capital, the seed-stage firm founded by Josh Kopelman and Howard Morgan.

In the past year, several of Trenchard’s portfolio companies have seen continued success. The insurtech startup EvolutionIQ, one of Trenchard’s portfolio companies that he backed in 2019, was bought for $730 million. The security tech startup Verkada raised a $200 million round, valuing it at $4.5 billion.

Trenchard said that in his years as an investor, he’d looked for “founders who are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to make customers successful.” He recalled that eight years ago, Verkada CEO Filip Kaliszan got up on a ladder at midnight to install cameras at the Equinox in Beverly Hills. Kaliszan “recently revisited the site and found those original cameras still in use — with the customer just as happy,” he said. “That level of founder commitment and obsession with making customers successful, no matter what it takes, is a powerful indicator.

53. Itamar Novick

Itamar Novick

Founder and general partner, Recursive Ventures

Notable investments: Deel, Placer.ai, May Mobility, Akash Network, Tomato AI, Anjuna Security

City: Berkeley, California

Novick makes seed investments through Recursive Ventures, the firm he launched in 2014 as a solo capitalist. He announced its third fund in February, with $30 million to back pre-seed startups primarily based in the US and Israel and focused on industry disruption with data and AI.

He started Recursive while still working at Life360, where he was a member of the location-sharing app’s founding team. He stayed at Life360 in various roles until its 2024 IPO, for which he served as its acting chief financial officer and general counsel. Before that, he was on the founding team of the customer identity management startup Gigya, which the German company SAP acquired for $350 million in 2017.

Novick has invested in more than 100 startups since 2010. He’s particularly excited about his 2024 investment in Perspective AI, which lets founders simulate conversations with their customers — a tool he said he would’ve loved to have used when he was an operator.

54. Raymond Tonsing

Raymond Tonsing

Title: Founder and managing partner, Caffeinated Capital

Notable investments: Saronic, Varda, Airtable, Affirm, Opendoor, Clipboard Health

City: San Francisco

After working in real estate investing, Tonsing switched to tech in 2009 when he founded Caffeinated Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm in San Francisco. He’s backed companies like the online payments startup WePay, which JPMorgan acquired, and the app development startup Parse, which Meta bought in 2013.

Tonsing also saw success with the fintech company Affirm, which went public in 2021 at a valuation of over $10 billion, and Airtable, which was valued at $11 billion in 2021.

He was an early investor in Varda Space, which aims to develop pharmaceutical components in space, and serves on its board.

55. Andreas Klinger

Andreas Klinger

Title: Solo general partner, Prototype Capital

Notable investments: Remote, Luma AI, Circle, Zed, PierSight Space, Sensmore

City: Berlin

Klinger was a founding member and chief technology officer of the product launch website Product Hunt before it was acquired by AngelList in 2017. He worked at AngelList and its subsidiary CoinList while also investing in pre-seed and seed-stage companies such as Hopin, Clubhouse, and Remote. In 2024, he launched the solo fund Prototype Capital.

Klinger says that in the past year, he’s been one of the core people behind a movement to establish a Pan-European legal entity that hopes to fix most of the hurdles to early-stage funding in Europe. The proposal has gotten the backing of the Stripe cofounder Patrick Collison and the Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham.

56. Lucas Vaz

Lucas Vaz

Title: Founder and general partner, Ravelin Capital

Notable Investments: Apex Space, Base Power, Covenant, Hadrian, The Lumber Manufactory, Shinkei Systems

City: San Francisco

Vaz founded his venture firm, Ravelin Capital, which backs early-stage startups building “critical software,” with bets largely in the industrial, defense, and manufacturing sectors. Vaz was motivated to found Ravelin after noticing “the decay of our infrastructure, the collapse of our institutions, and the changing geopolitical tides,” he wrote in a note on the firm’s website. Previously, Vaz worked as an investor at Village Global, an early-stage venture firm.

“From manufacturing and defense to other sectors such as industrials, energy, fishing, and lumber, we’re witnessing an unprecedented wave of world-class talent pouring into sectors that have long been overlooked,” Vaz told BI. “These entrepreneurs aren’t chasing trends — they’re committing their lives to rebuilding the systems that matter most.”

57. Jeff Fluhr

Jeff Fluhr, Courtesy of Craft Ventures

Venture partner, Craft Ventures

Notable investments: Warby Parker, Twilio, Houzz, CrewAI, Arch, Pickle

City: San Francisco

Fluhr dropped out of the Stanford Graduate School of Business to cofound StubHub in 2000 and served as the company’s CEO until its sale to eBay in 2007. He then launched the social video platform Spreecast, which shut down in 2016, and joined Craft Ventures a few years later. In March, Fluhr announced in a LinkedIn post that he was transitioning to a new chapter as a venture partner at the firm after seven years as a general partner.

As an investor, Fluhr has backed companies including Warby Parker and Houzz, and other unicorns, including Course Hero, MDLive, and Trulia. Out of his investments in the past year, Fluhr is particularly excited about the AI agent startup CrewAI, which he said was “the leading open source framework for AI agent orchestration, an area that is already having a huge impact on Fortune 500 companies and will only grow in importance over the next five years.”

58. Kevin Durant

Kevin Durant, Mike Stobe/Getty Images

Title: Cofounder, 35V

Notable investments: Goalsetter, StarStock, Hugging Face, Helm.ai, Lively

City: New York

Durant is best known as a star in the NBA, winning back-to-back championships with the Golden State Warriors in 2017 and 2018. But few realize that Durant is also a prolific investor through 35V, the firm he cofounded with his business partner, Rich Kleiman, in 2016.

His investments include the AI coding startup Hugging Face to the wellness company Thrive Global.

59. Zach Weinberg

Zach Weinberg

Title: General partner, Operator Partners; cofounder and CEO, Curie.Bio

Notable investments: Whatnot, Nourish, Ro, Spring Health, QA Wolf

City: New York

Weinberg helps seed-stage founders discover drugs with his biotech-focused accelerator and investment firm, Curie.Bio. It’s backed by the industry heavyweights GV, Andreessen Horowitz, and Arch Venture Partners. It raised $340 million in January to back up to 20 more biotech companies this year.

He’s a successful two-time startup founder, having sold his adtech startup, Invite Media, to Google for $81 million in 2010. His second company, the oncology tech startup Flatiron Health, sold to Roche for $2 billion in 2018.

Weinberg also deploys capital through the early-stage venture firm he cofounded, Operator Partners, and maintains a personal portfolio as an angel investor.

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60. Steve Loughlin

Steve Loughlin

Title: Partner, Accel

Notable investments: Monte Carlo Data, Airkit.ai, Poggio Labs, Centaur Labs, Productiv, Stairwell

City: Palo Alto, California

Loughlin was originally a founder, developing the sales technology startup RelateIQ, which was acquired by Salesforce in 2014 for $390 million. He joined Accel in 2016, where he helps lead the firm’s seed practice. One of Loughlin’s early bets, the data startup Monte Carlo Data raised $60 million in Series C funding in 2024 and saw 100% year-over-year revenue growth.

“In looking at new investments for a seed, it’s all about the founders,” Loughlin told BI. “Startups are never a straight line, so understanding why they are starting and learning about their history of execution is critical in partnering.”

61. Hadley Harris

Hadley Harris

Founding general partner, Eniac Ventures

Notable investments: Attentive, 1upHealth, Anchor, Hinge, Level AI, Attention

City: New York

Prior to cofounding New York-based Eniac Ventures in 2010, Harris cut his teeth at two VC-backed startups, including an AI voice assistant that would later become Siri.

He’s now using that experience to lead Eniac’s AI investing efforts, both at the application and tooling layer. Eniac leads early-stage rounds for software, AI, and IT companies.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to have spent over 15 years building and investing in AI-first companies, including building the first voice-based virtual assistant, which became Siri after being acquired,” Harris told BI. “This deep-rooted passion has given me valuable experience and insight, helping me partner with founders of AI-first companies today.”

62. Jason Warner

Jason Warner

Cofounder and CEO, Poolside

Notable investments: Supabase, Temporal, Railway, Gretel, Drata, Etched

City: San Francisco

Warner is the cofounder and CEO of buzzy AI startup Poolside, which just raised $500 million at a $3 billion valuation. Prior to founding Poolside, Warner was an investor at Redpoint Ventures, where he backed AI and infrastructure companies. Warner was also the CTO of GitHub, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2018 for over $7 billion.

63. Eric Wu

Eric Wu, Courtesy of Opendoor

Cofounder and advisor, Opendoor

Notable investments: Ramp, Airtable, Mercury, Harvey, Faire

City: San Francisco

At the end of 2023, Wu stepped down as president of Opendoor, the property technology company he cofounded in 2014. The move opened the door for him to do more angel investing.

“While a common criterion, I place significant emphasis on the slope and market fit of the founding team,” Wu told BI.

He has a passion for real-estate tech firms, such as Kindred Concepts, which was founded by two former Opendoor employees, and the Brazilian homebuying marketplace Loft. Wu also oversees a syndicate alongside David King to write bigger checks.

64. Olaf Carlson-Wee

Olaf Carlson-Wee, Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images for Art Saint Barth

CEO, Polychain Capital

Notable investments: Polymarket, Anoma, Yellow Card, Merico, Vesper Energy

City: San Francisco

A self-proclaimed early lover of crypto who wrote his 2012 college thesis on bitcoin, Carlson-Wee became Coinbase’s first employee after he famously cold-emailed the company’s founders, he recalled in a 2016 interview with Y Combinator. That was the year he left Coinbase and launched Polychain Capital, an investment firm focused on backing crypto and blockchain-based technologies.

Since then, Carlson-Wee has served as the investment firm’s CEO, which has racked up nearly 300 investments, according to PitchBook. Those include checks to the crypto-based prediction market Polymarket and the African cryptocurrency exchange Yellow Card.

65. Dan Teran

Dan Teran

Cofounder and managing partner, Gutter Capital

Notable investments: Forerunner, Bikky, Opus, Rowan

City: New York

Teran is a founder turned investor and started backing startups in 2021 after selling his company, the office management software Managed by Q, to WeWork in 2019 for $220 million. His portfolio has since grown to more than 100 startups, and several of his bets have blossomed into companies worth $1 billion.

“Whether it’s raising money, hiring executives, finding product-market fit, making an acquisition, or selling the company — most challenges our founders encounter I’ve done myself,” Teran said. “We built our strategy around being the founder’s first choice, and our highly concentrated investment strategy allows me to spend real time with our founders to recruit teams, close sales, navigate to product-market fit, and build companies of consequence.”

66. Neeraj Berry

Neeraj Berry

Title: Founder and managing partner, Tet Ventures

Notable investments: Maven, Chef Robotics, Kingdom Supercultures, Wildwonder, Phytoform, Season Health

City: Oakland, California

A serial entrepreneur, Berry cofounded food delivery startup Sprig. He also founded 12Society, a subscription commerce business backed by a host of celebrities and investors like Mark Cuban. Berry founded Tet Ventures to make seed investments in food tech startups. One of Berry’s early investments, Chef Robotics, a startup that brings AI-powered robotics to food services, just raised $20.6 million in a Series A funding round.

“Money is flowing again, but we believe long-term success to be predicated on taking ambitious swings with fewer resources,” Berry told BI. “We’ve seen the rise and fall of the overcapitalized startup many times, and we’re betting on teams that are increasingly audacious, nimble, and resourceful.”

67. Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel

Title: Partner, Founders Fund

Notable investments: Airbnb, Anduril, Facebook, Flexport, Stripe

City: Los Angeles

Thiel keeps a low public profile despite being one of the most influential people in Silicon Valley and now in Washington, DC.

He is part of the early lore at some of Silicon Valley’s most iconic companies. He cofounded PayPal and Palantir and was an early investor in Facebook and LinkedIn. His more recent bets include the defense tech company Anduril, which is seeing extremely high demand from secondary investors, and Ramp, which doubled its valuation to $13 billion earlier this year.

Thiel has also launched several venture firms: Founders Fund, whose portfolio includes Faire and Rippling; Valar Ventures, an internationally focused firm that was an early backer of the accounting software company Xero; and Mithril Capital Management, which invested in the blockchain-focused fintech company Paxos.

This year, Thiel has seen his influence rise as an ally of the Trump administration. He is considered by many the “godfather of DOGE.”

68. Max Levchin

Max Levchin, Courtesy of Affirm

CEO, Affirm; general partner, SciFi VC

Notable investments: Yelp, Crunchyroll, Stripe, Gusto, Brex

City: San Francisco

Levchin cofounded the company that would become PayPal with Peter Thiel and cemented his lore in the tech world as a member of the now-famous “PayPal Mafia.” Since his PayPal days, he’s gone on to launch several companies, including the startup studio HVF. From HVF, Levchin spun out the fintech company Affirm, which he cofounded with Nathan Gettings, Jeffrey Kaditz, and Alex Rampell. He’s been the company’s CEO since 2014, heralding it through its IPO in early 2021.

Levchin is also an active investor and cofounded SciFi VC with his wife, Nellie Levchin, whom he credits with finding the firm’s investments and many of his angel investments. Levchin was also an early backer of companies including Yelp, Crunchyroll, and Stripe.

69. Guillermo Rauch

Guillermo Rauch

CEO, Vercel

Notable Investments: Perplexity, ElevenLabs, Resend, Spline, Braintrust

City: San Francisco

Rauch is the CEO of Vercel, a cloud infrastructure startup that last raised a $250 million Series E at a $3.25 billion valuation in 2024. Before Vercel, Rauch founded Cloudup, a startup acquired by the parent company of WordPress in 2013. He has angel invested in some of Silicon Valley’s buzziest startups, such as Perplexity and ElevenLabs.

Rauch’s own stance on rethinking products like Vercel to account for the rapid pace of AI advancements informs his investment thesis: “It’s very easy to rest on the laurels of what you’ve built,” he told BI. “It’s hard to try and disrupt yourself while revenue is growing, customers seem happy, and your peers are impressed, yet I think this is what the greatest companies are all about.”

70. Jack Altman

Marc Vasquez, Courtesy of Lattice

General partner, Alt Capital

Notable investments: Antares, Fillout, Legora, Owner, Rogo

City: San Francisco

A year and a half ago, Altman stepped back as the chief executive of Lattice, the human resources software company he founded and scaled to unicorn status, to return to his first love: the earliest stages of company-building. He locked down $150 million for his inaugural fund and launched an accelerator for business software startups, harnessing artificial intelligence.

Altman’s bets include Legora, the legal tech startup that’s shaking up the industry, and Rogo, the Thrive Capital-backed startup working to build Wall Street’s first truly autonomous analyst.

71. Nat Turner

Nat Turner, Courtesy of Operator Partners

General partner, Operator Partners; CEO, Collectors

Notable investments: Plaid, Suki, Oura, Zipline, David Energy

City: New York

Turner has been angel investing since 2010, the same year he sold his first startup, the adtech company Invite Media, to Google for $81 million. After two years at Google, he cofounded Flatiron Health, the cancer care startup acquired by Roche for $1.9 billion in 2018.

In 2020, he formalized his investment approach by launching the venture firm Operator Partners alongside three friends, including his Invite Media cofounder Zach Weinberg. He became the CEO of Collectors, an online collectibles marketplace and authentication platform, after leading an investor group in taking the company private in 2021. He joined GameStop’s board of directors in November, a month after Collectors notched a partnership with the gaming retailer.

72. Robert Leshner

Robert Leshner, Courtesy of Superstate

General partner, Robot Ventures; CEO, Superstate

Notable investments: Nansen, Celestia, Axelar, LayerZero, Alluvial, Succinct

City: New York

Leshner is known as one of the forefathers of decentralized finance, having cofounded Compound Labs in 2017, which developed one of the first DeFi applications. He went on to cofound and is the CEO of Superstate, an asset management firm that’s building blockchain tokenized investment products.

Leshner is also a cofounder and general partner of Robot Ventures, a pre-seed and seed stage firm focused on crypto and fintech startups. Since its founding in 2019, Robot Ventures has backed more than 200 companies, and it raised $75 million for its fourth fund last year. Leshner shared his advice for startup founders now building: “Robots/AI are going to perform all jobs, from finance to media. Build accordingly.”

73. Jordan Nof

Jordan Nof

Managing director, Tusk Venture Partners

Notable investments: Ro, Alma, Dub, Sunday, Kodex, Lumion

City: New York

Nof started Tusk Venture Partners in 2015 to back early-stage tech companies in highly regulated markets. He’s bet on startups like the direct-to-consumer health startup Ro, which was last valued at $7 billion in 2022, and the mental health startup Alma, which raised $130 million in Series D funding in 2022.

Before launching Tusk Venture Partners, Nof was a director at Blackstone Innovations, the private equity giant Blackstone’s early-stage investing arm. In its 10-year history, Tusk Venture Partners has invested in companies such as the crypto exchange Coinbase, the insurtech company Lemonade, and the sports betting platform FanDuel.

74. Ron Pragides

Ron Pragides

Limited Partner, GTMfund

Notable Investments: Allstacks, Cacheflow, Cake Equity, Jet HR, Momentum.io, Seeds Investor

City: San Francisco

Pragides is one of more than 350 limited partners at GTMfund, an early-stage venture firm that invests in B2B SaaS companies, according to the company’s LinkedIn. He also angel invests and has cashed out on some hot investments, such as Cacheflow, a billing product startup that was acquired by HubSpot in 2024.

The most important qualities Pragides looks for in a startup before investing are founder-market fit, a B2B angle, prioritizing automation and efficiency, and “niches that I am personally interested in,” he told BI.

75. Terrence Rohan

Terrence Rohan

Managing director, Otherwise Fund

Notable investments: Figma, Notion, Robinhood, Vanta, Hugging Face, Granola

City: San Francisco

Rohan began his venture capital career with seven years at Index Ventures, during which he built an angel fund for founders to make seed investments. He spun Otherwise Fund out of Index in 2017 with the same premise — to help founders invest in seed- to growth-stage startups. Rohan also invests from the fund, with a focus on seed-stage bets.

In the past year, nearly one-quarter of Rohan’s seed investments have seen valuation markups or raised Series A rounds, one of the highest ratios he’s seen in his 15 years of seed investing, he told BI. When choosing his investments, he said he focuses especially on the founders’ unique insights, as well as the “why now” question: What makes the timing right for that specific company to succeed?

“These essential variables don’t easily change and define company trajectory,” he said. “Everything else important — product, pricing, distribution, business model, competition — is more malleable and therefore secondary.”

76. Anne Dwane

Anne Dwane

Cofounder and partner, Village Global

Notable investments: Commontools, P-1 AI, AirGarage, Cherry, Pave, Grow Therapy

City: San Francisco

For a career investor like Dwane, AI has represented a generational shift, which is creating an exciting time to evaluate startups and founders for new investment opportunities.

“The last year has been like no other,” she told BI. “AI’s impact is just beginning to show up in legacy industries, where the gap between what’s possible and what exists remains wide.”

Dwane added that the industry is also experiencing a revolution when it comes to software development, which she said will allow more people to build companies.

Across Village Global’s three funds, Dwane’s deals have a cumulative holding value of more than $16 billion. Before Village Global, Dwane cofounded the veteran-focused news site Military.com and later served as the CEO of Zinch, a university-recruitment startup acquired by the edtech company Chegg in 2011.

77. Jim Andelman

Jim Andelman

Cofounder and managing director, Bonfire Ventures

Notable investments: Writer, Mntn, TaxJar, Boulevard, Wildfire Systems, Alvys

City: Los Angeles

Andelman kicked off his investing career 25 years ago, backing growth-stage software companies at Broadview Capital Partners. A few years later, he founded Rincon Venture Partners, which he calls one of the original “micro VC” firms — seed investing before seed investing as an industry exploded.

His latest venture firm, Bonfire Ventures, backs hot early-stage startups building business-to-business software. The firm raised its fourth and largest fund in February, a $245 million fund that pushed Bonfire’s total assets under management over $1 billion. Several of its portfolio companies have also had banner years, including the generative-AI startup Writer, which raised $200 million in Series C funding at a $1.9 billion valuation in November, and the adtech startup Mntn, which filed to go public in March.

78. Immad Akhund

Immad Akhund

Founder and CEO, Mercury

Notable Investments: Rappi, Airtable, Rippling, Etched, Decagon, Albedo Space

City: San Francisco

Akhund is the founder and CEO of the banking startup Mercury, which recently raised a $300 million Series C at a $3.5 billion valuation led by Sequoia. Before Mercury, Akhund cofounded Heyzap, a startup that made mobile game developer tools, which was acquired by Fyber for $45 million in 2016.

Akhund angel invests in “things that will seem inevitable 10 years from now and can be $10 billion companies,” he told BI. To him, these are Silicon Valley heavyweights such as Etched, which makes computing hardware, and Decagon, an AI-powered customer support software startup.

79. Emmett Shear

Emmett Shear, Robin L Marshall/Getty Images

Title: Cofounder, Justin.tv

Notable investments: Torch, Cruise, ForeVR Games, Fathom, Substack

City: San Francisco

A serial entrepreneur, Shear is best known for cofounding the livestreaming startup Justin.tv with Kan. In 2011, Shear spun the gaming livestreaming business Twitch off from Justin.tv. In 2014, Amazon bought Twitch for $970 million, and Shear remained as its CEO. In 2023, he was the interim CEO of OpenAI for a short time after Sam Altman was ousted. Shear made early bets on companies like Substack and Cruise.

80. Ashu Garg

Ashu Garg

General partner, Foundation Capital

Notable investments: Databricks, Anyscale, Cohesity, Arize, Turing, Eightfold

City: Palo Alto, California

For Garg, whose firm, Foundation Capital, was founded more than 30 years ago and placed its first AI bet more than a decade ago, there are three important things to look for when it comes to evaluating an early-stage, pre-revenue startup: the founder, the market, and technical insight.

“I look for evidence of ‘exceptional’ — exceptional intellect, exceptional grit, and exceptionally high willingness to prioritize the startup over almost everything else in their life,” he told BI. “What’s the unique insight that makes this startup different from the 100-plus other players going after the same market?”

Over the years, keeping these questions in mind has served Garg well as he’s made bets in startups like Databricks, which has mulled an IPO, Cohesity, and Turing.

Prior to joining Foundation Capital in 2008, Garg worked at McKinsey and Microsoft.

81. Andrew Miklas

Title: Founder, Functional Capital; cofounder, PagerDuty

Notable investments: Gem, Retool, Clerk, Courier

City: San Francisco

Miklas cofounded the digital operations management company PagerDuty with Alex Solomon and Baskar Puvanathasan in 2009. He served as the company’s chief technology officer until 2016 and then transitioned to venture capital, becoming a venture partner at S28 Capital. He also founded the early-stage firm Functional Capital, which focuses on B2B startups. Miklas has been a visiting group partner at Y Combinator since last year. PagerDuty was part of the accelerator’s summer cohort in 2010 and became its second company to go public after a 2019 IPO.

82. Lee Fixel

Addition

Title: Founder, Addition

Notable investments: Hugging Face, Lyra Health, Satispay

City: New York

Fixel spent more than a decade at Tiger Global Management and played a pivotal role in investing in companies such as Flipkart, Spotify, and Peloton. In 2019, he departed to launch his own venture capital firm, Addition, which focuses on early- and growth-stage startups.

During the past six years, Fixel and Addition have built an investment portfolio that includes companies like Hugging Face, Lyra Health, Satispay, Chainalysis, and Snyk.

83. Ramtin Naimi

Ramtin Naimi

Founder and general partner, Abstract

Notable investments: Solana, Rippling, WorkOS, Hebbia, Passes, Replit

City: San Francisco

Naimi kick-started his investment career at the age of 15, trading options. He then founded a hedge fund at just 18. Naimi later founded Abstract in 2016, where he focuses on leading seed-stage deals across all sectors. He says the firm has $1.6 billion in assets under management, and recent investments include the AI agent developer tool Anon, the autonomous-robot maker Watney Robotics, and the AI defense tech startup Kela. As for what Naimi looks for in a founder, he said, “I like high-momentum founders that operate with a relentless sense of urgency and demonstrate novel thinking.”

84. Ludwig Pierre Schulze

Ludwig Pierre Schulze

Title: Managing partner, Alumni Ventures

Notable Investments: Clarium Health, Nixtla, CompScience, ForceMetrics, Synthesis School

City: New York

Pierre Schulze is a managing partner at Alumni Ventures, where he writes checks ranging from $50,000 to $10 million to pre-seed to Series B companies. Through Alumni Ventures, Pierre Schulze manages Waterman Ventures, Brown University’s VC community, and 116 Street Ventures, Columbia University’s VC community.

“One of our companies went from single to triple-digit millions of revenue in a year,” Pierre Schulze said when asked about his biggest accomplishments from 2024.

85. Milad Alucozai

Milad Alucozai

Title: Cofounder and general partner, Pamir Ventures

Notable investments: Fathom, Character Biosciences, Axonis Therapeutics, Talus Bio, Seqera Labs

City: San Francisco

Alucozai started in venture capital at BoxOne Ventures, where he spent nearly six years leading 70 of the firm’s early-stage investments as its head of life sciences and deep tech. While at BoxOne, he helped cofound Revalia Bio, a startup spun out of Yale that’s working to enable drug discovery and development through the study of revived human organs. Alucozai led Revalia Bio’s pre-seed round and invested in its 2024 seed round.

With a background in neuroscience, Alucozai said his singular focus as an early-stage investor is identifying brilliant technical founders. He said he looks for technical leaders from humble backgrounds setting out to build long-lasting products.

Alucozai left BoxOne this past summer. This year, he said he’s focused on building and launching an unannounced early-stage venture fund with two of his friends dubbed Pamir Ventures.

86. Meltem Demirors

Meltem Demirors

General partner, Crucible Capital

Notable investments: Double Zero, CentralAxis, Ostium

City: New York

Demirors has had a busy year launching her new firm, Crucible Capital, which invests in energy, compute, and crypto startups. Crucible ended 2024 with $36 million in committed capital from a $50 million target fund and is now oversubscribed, Demirors told BI. The firm also recently made its third investing hire.

For Demirors, Crucible Capital is the natural extension of her long career as an investor outside the traditional venture capital space. Rather than spinning out of a VC fund, she built investment firms and asset managers in crypto while she was angel investing. Prior to launching Crucible, Demirors was the chief strategy officer at the digital-asset investment company CoinShares.

At Crucible, her LPs are mostly builders, operators, and investors, rather than institutional investors or funds of funds.

“I feel like Crucible is a bit of an anomaly and it can be challenging considering how clubby venture can be sometimes,” she said.

87. Mathilde Collin

Front

Title: Cofounder and executive chairperson, Front

Notable Investments: Retool, Mercury, Vanta, Copilot, Meter, Browser Use

City: San Francisco

Colllin cofounded Front, a customer service platform startup, in 2013 after working as a project manager at another startup. She served as Front’s CEO until October and is now its executive chairperson. Collin also angel invests in a variety of companies, which include the fintech banking startup Mercury and the tool-building platform Retool.

In founders, Collin looks for “a delicate balance between humility, self awareness and self confidence,” she told BI. “Enough self confidence to inspire people to be on the journey with them, enough humility to get people to help them, enough self awareness to work on themselves.”

88. Christopher Golda

Christopher Golda

Founder and managing partner, Rogue Capital

Notable investments: Apex Space, Benchling, Coinbase, Stoke Space, Supabase

City: San Francisco

Golda began his entrepreneurial career as the founder of BackType, an analytics company that raised funding from Y Combinator and firms such as True Ventures. Twitter acquired BackType in 2011, and Golda stayed at the social media company for three years, leading product efforts at its advertising center. He left to launch Rogue Capital in 2014 to back seed and Series A startups.

Like many of the investors on this list, Golda said he focuses on the founder when choosing bets — but he’s specifically looking for “a high tolerance for chaos and uncertainty,” a critical skill he says can be especially difficult to develop later in life. “Without that, even the most resourceful founders will struggle to overcome the day-to-day challenges of a startup,” he said.

89. Warren Weiss

Warren Weiss

Title: Managing partner, WestWave Capital; general partner, Foundation Capital

Notable investments: Theta Lake, Solo.io, Binarly, Secuvy, Cigent, Savant Labs

City: Redwood City, California

Weiss, a four-time CEO, founded WestWave in 2017 to invest in emerging software companies. In the past year, he has backed a number of software companies, including Secuvy, Elate, Savant, and Discern Security. He also serves on the boards of Trufa, Cyphort, Moxie, SilkRoad Technology, Silver Spring Networks, and Visier.

“This is the most distributive and exciting time to be in the early-stage venture capital market that I have ever seen,” Weiss told BI. “AI will drive the reinvention of every single category that WestWave Capital invests in. This will create many new multibillio companies.”

90. Ann DeWitt

Ann DeWitt

General partner, Engine Ventures

Notable investments: Cellino, Bexorg, Matrisome Bio, Terragia, Anthology, Kano Therapeutics, Source Bio

City: Boston

DeWitt has spent her career helping companies build new transformative biotechnologies. She began in VC at the Massachusetts life sciences firm Flagship Pioneering, then moved to Sanofi, where she guided the pharma giant’s investments.

She joined The Engine, an MIT spinout, in 2018, two years after its launch. First as The Engine’s chief operating officer, then as a general partner, she supported the startup incubator and accelerator’s work with “tough tech” companies, offering an array of resources from lab space to capital for startups building in areas like climate and human health.

In 2023, DeWitt stayed on the investing side of the business when The Engine split its startup support operations from its venture arm. She highlighted Engine Ventures’ investment in Cellino, which announced in February plans to open a stem cell manufacturing facility on-site at Massachusetts General Hospital in partnership with the top health system Mass General Brigham’s Gene and Cell Therapy Institute.

91. Michael Sutton

Michael Sutton

Title: Cofounder and general partner, Runtime Ventures

Notable Investments: StepSecurity, SplxAI, System Two, Todyl, GreyNoise, Orca Security

City: Arlington, Virginia

Sutton worked in cybersecurity for more than two decades before investing in the space as a venture capitalist. He started his career at EY and then worked at the internet infrastructure and security company iDefense, which VeriSign bought in 2005. Sutton then served as the chief information security officer at Zscaler, which helped establish the security-as-a-service industry.

Before cofounding the cyber-focused firm Runtime Ventures with David Endler, a cybersecurity veteran, Sutton worked in VC at Blu Venture Investors, YL Ventures, and StoneMill Ventures. Runtime’s first $32 million fund closed in January 2025. “Starting a VC fund from scratch, especially as a former operator, took a tremendous amount of hard work, unwavering determination and exhausting our network, but it was all worth it,” Sutton told BI.

“Runtime Ventures is the culmination of my experience and passion building and funding cybersecurity startups. It’s what I know and love,” he said, adding: “We are blessed to be able to do this every day.”

92. Justin Kan

Justin Kan, Kimberly White/Getty

Title: Cofounder, Goat Capital

Notable investments: Torch, Sendbird, Paystack, ForeVR Games, Cruise

City: San Francisco

Kan is best known as a cofounder of livestreaming startup Justin.tv and Twitch, the internet live video streaming platform that was sold to Amazon in 2014 for $970 million. He’s also invested in some of the well-known startups in tech, including Reddit, Cruise, and Rippling. Kan, who makes seed investments through his firm Goat Capital, recently founded Stash, a direct-to-consumer platform for games.

93. Nicolas Dessaigne

Nicolas Dessaigne

Title: General partner, Y Combinator

Notable Investments: Encord, Flower AI, Continue.dev, Wordware, Unsloth

City: San Francisco

Dessaigne knows a thing or two about Y Combinator — not only because he’s currently a general partner at the famed accelerator, but also because he was in a Y Combinator cohort as a cofounder of Algolia. The search API startup last raised funding in 2021, which valued it at more than $2 billion. Now on the other side of the table, Dessaigne has invested in a slew of Y Combinator-backed companies, such as the multimodal data labeling AI startup Encord, which raised a $30 million Series B led by Next47 in August 2024.

“I’m amazed by how AI is giving superpowers to new founders, from codegen tools that 10x development speed to new models that unlock massive value,” Dessaigne told BI. “Incumbents simply can’t keep up with their pace. There’s never been a better time to start a company.”

94. Abhishek Sharma

Abhishek Sharma

Managing director, Nexus Venture Partners

Notable investments: Apollo.io, Fingerprint, Nx, Daloopa, TileDB,

City: Menlo Park, California

An engineer by training who studied at one of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology, Sharma cofounded the startup HelloIntern.com, worked as an associate at the consulting firm Booz & Company, and did a stint at eBay before jumping into venture capital. Since 2015, he’s been with the VC firm Nexus Venture Partners, which focuses on enterprise SaaS startups in the US and digital companies in India. Sharma has led some of the firm’s deals with companies such as Clover Health, which went public in 2021.

Sharma said that last year he was an early investor in the fast-growing AI agent development startup StackBlitz, known for its product Bolt.new. He’s also excited about his recent investments in the AI workflow automation startup Gumloop and the AI call center startup Leaping AI.

Sharma said he “loves partnering with first-time technical founders” and values those who have “product obsession, single-minded focus, clarity of thinking, and humility.”

95. Wally Wang

Wally Wang

Title: Founding managing partner, Scale Asia Ventures

Notable Investments: Weaviate, Argilla, Array, CAST AI, Fiddler AI, AppZen

City: Palo Alto, California

Wang started in tech as a product manager for Microsoft’s Bing search engine. After founding two startups and working at enterprise software companies, he led venture investments for the Asian conglomerate Fosun International and a family office.

While Wang is a solo GP at Scale Asia Ventures, the small but mighty team has already had three acquisitions in the past year. When investing in AI infrastructure, Wang scouts founders “who can adeptly adapt successful strategies from the previous cloud era to the emerging generative AI landscape,” he said.

96. Andrew Vigneault

Andrew Vigneault

Founder and general partner, Flexcap Ventures

Notable investments: Helicone, Kindo, DraftAid, Crossmint, Nium

City: New York

Vigneault has made his way onto the cap tables of some of the biggest startups through his early-stage fund, FlexCap Ventures. He wrote an early check to the NFT trading marketplace OpenSea and a seed check to the cybersecurity startup Material Security, which hit a $1.1 billion valuation in 2022.

Vigneault said he made 16 new seed investments in 2024, including a startup developing agentic AI to automate silicon engineering and others building AI models to enable early detection of chronic illnesses. Of the 50 seed investments he made from 2022 to 2024, 60% have been marked up through raising follow-on capital, he said.

When evaluating new opportunities, Vigneault said, he focuses on “partnering with founders who exhibit a profound and authentic comprehension of their industry and prospect customers.”

97. Zachary Bratun-Glennon

Zachary Bratun-Glennon

Cofounder and general partner, Gradient Ventures

Notable Investments: Lambda, Rad AI, ELSA, Venn, Syrup, Clarify

City: San Francisco

Since cofounding Gradient, Google’s venture fund focused on AI, in 2017, Bratun-Glennon has invested in more than 35 companies, and he’s on more than 25 boards. Before Gradient, Bratun-Glennon helmed acquisitions and strategic investments for Google Cloud. He also worked as a technology banker at Deutsche Bank and began his career as an analyst at the energy-focused firm DC Energy.

At Gradient, Bratun-Glennon invests in pre-seed, seed, and Series A startups building in areas such as applied AI technologies, fintech, and B2B software. This includes Lambda, a startup most recently valued at more than $2 billion that develops a cloud computing platform for AI training and inference, which Bratun-Glennon backed in its seed round in 2017.

“We’ve been focused on backing the best founders in applied AI at the earliest stages for a decade, and we think the space is just getting started,” Bratun-Glennon told BI. “Today’s ‘wrappers’ are tomorrow’s software platforms, built by layering unique user value, proprietary data and deep workflow integration.”

98. Nitesh Banta

Nitesh Banta

Cofounder and CEO, B12

Notable investments: Codeium, Cognition Labs, Grammarly, ZeroEyes, Varda, Chai Discovery

City: New York

Banta started the AI website builder B12 in 2015, the same year he began angel investing through a fund called Stellar Capital. Before B12, he cofounded the car-sharing app Getaround and the student-focused VC firm Rough Draft Ventures, and spent five years as an investor at General Catalyst backing early-stage tech companies.

He said the rise of AI has made the current moment the most exciting time he’s experienced as an early-stage investor, highlighting AI’s ability to enable founders to do more with less.

“With less capital, founders can leverage AI to build better products and scale faster than ever,” he said.

99. Ash Egan

Ash Egan

Cofounder, Archetype Ventures

Notable investments: Privy, Farcaster, Reservoir, Parcl, Chainalysis, Bison Trails

City: New York

Egan has been leading investments in seed-stage crypto companies and protocols since 2015, writing early checks to startups including Chainalysis, Mina, Near, and Balancer. He also previously led investments for the VC firm Accomplice in Dapper Labs/Flow and Bison Trails (which was acquired by Coinbase), among others. One of Egan’s early investments, Privy, hit 50 million wallets this year and raised a new round of funding led by Ribbit Capital.

Egan said he’s interested in investing in startups at the “intersection of crypto and AI; programmable social networks and applications that will be built atop; and infrastructure and middleware that will make blockchains as fast and as cheap as an API call.”

100. Morgan Flager

Morgan Flager

Managing partner, Silverton Partners

Notable investments: AlertMedia, Ping Identity, Self Financial, The Zebra, The Helper Bees, Repairify

City: Austin

Flager has spent the past 18 years at Silverton Partners, where he has been a managing partner since 2009. At Silverton, Flager has sponsored 24 investments, as well as overseeing 11 acquisitions and two IPOs. Before that, he briefly worked at FTV Capital in San Francisco as an associate. He got his start as an operator at the then startups Ingrian Networks and Kintana. Flager also cofounded the e-commerce infrastructure startup Woosh in 1998.

Flager said that in his 25 years in venture capital and startups, there had never been a more exciting time to be an early-stage tech investor. “We’re witnessing an unprecedented wave of innovation, where advances in artificial intelligence are rapidly transforming every industry, from healthcare and finance to education and entertainment,” he told BI. “The pace of progress is accelerating, and startups natively leveraging AI are not only solving complex problems faster and more effectively but they are also creating entirely new markets.”

Interactive development by Annie Fu and Randy Yeip.

When much of human activity moved online during the height of the pandemic, tech companies were thriving. Call it the COVID tech bubble. Now we’ve hit the COVID tech bust.

By the second half of 2022, tech companies had initiated significant layoffs — something that had followed an extended period of frenzied tech hiring and attention to employee experience. Standard explanations for the cuts were that companies hired too many during the pandemic and they were looking at the specter of a recession in the months ahead. It sounds a lot like the dot-com boom and bust of yore. Not all companies are impacted equally. It’s the ones that hired at an accelerated rate during the boom that seem to be hitting the brakes right now.

At the same time, IT pros with cybersecurity, cloud, and data analytics/machine learning skills have remained in high demand so far.

In this space, InformationWeek will document some of the more significant layoffs, updated regularly. Be sure to check back.

Here’s a look at the biggest tech layoffs so far:

Related:2023 IT Salary Report: Pay Increases Despite Economic Pressures

May 2025 Tech Layoffs

Microsoft, May 13, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 6,000 workers, 3% of workforce.

Microsoft laid off about 6,000 workers, nearly 3% of its workforce and its largest job cuts since 2023, according to the Associated Press. Microsoft said the layoffs will be across all levels, teams and geographies but the cuts focus on reducing the number of managers. The mass layoffs come weeks after Microsoft reported strong sales and profits that beat expectations for the January-March quarter. Microsoft employed 228,000 full-time workers as of June 2024, with about 55% of those workers in the United States. Microsoft announced a smaller round of performance-based layoffs in January, but the 3% cuts will be Microsoft’s biggest since early 2023. The company cut 10,000 workers at the time, or 5% of its workforce, as it scaled back COVID-era expansions.

CrowdStrike, May 7, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 500 roles, 5% of workforce.

CrowdStrike announced a plan to cut about 500 roles, about 5% of its workforce, to streamline operations and reduce costs, according to Reuters. The Austin, TX-based cybersecurity company will incur between $36 million-$53 million in charges related to the layoffs, of which about $7 million will be recognized in the first quarter ended April 30, CrowdStrike said in a regulatory filing. CrowdStrike representatives said the rest of the charges will be seen in the second quarter and primarily consist of future cash expenditure related to severance payments, employee benefits and related costs. CrowdStrike had 10,118 full-time employees as of January 31, according to its annual report.

CrowdStrike, May 7, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 500 roles, 5% of workforce.

CrowdStrike announced a plan to cut about 500 roles, about 5% of its workforce, to streamline operations and reduce costs, according to Reuters. The Austin, TX-based cybersecurity company will incur between $36 million-$53 million in charges related to the layoffs, of which about $7 million will be recognized in the first quarter ended April 30, CrowdStrike said in a regulatory filing. CrowdStrike representatives said the rest of the charges will be seen in the second quarter and primarily consist of future cash expenditure related to severance payments, employee benefits and related costs. CrowdStrike had 10,118 full-time employees as of January 31, according to its annual report.

March 2025 Tech Layoffs

Brightcove, March 19, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 198 people, 33% of workforce.

Following its February acquisition by Italian developer Bending Spoons, video streaming company Brightcove is laying off 33% of its U.S.-based employees, according to Boston.com. In a notice to the state, Brightcove announced layoffs that would impact 198 employees, including 65 workers in Massachusetts. According to the report, a Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notice filed last week indicated that the layoffs would occur between mid-March and the end of July. While Bending Spoons did not respond to a request for comment about the restructuring, it appears that the layoffs were initiated to eliminate redundancies following the merger.

Acxiom, March 19, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 130 people, 3% of workforce.

IPG’s data unit Acxiom has reportedly laid off 130 employees, or nearly 3.5% of its workforce, according to two people with direct knowledge and internal documents obtained by ADWEEK. Account management, client services, financial analysis, and strategic partnerships were among the affected departments as part of Acxiom’s restructuring. According to ADWEEK’s report, executive level layoffs had been expected since the announcement that Kinesso and Acxiom would operate under the same leadership, and “coincided with the Omnicom related cost cuts.”

HelloFresh, March 17, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 273 people.

The meal kit company is laying off 273 employees at its “most technologically advanced” fulfillment center in Grand Prairie, Texas, according to Grocery Dive. HelloFresh’s restructuring will be effective May 13, according to a WARN notice filed by the company. The company reportedly ended its relationship with staffing agency Manpower, which led to the cuts. “As the meal kit market normalizes, we are now focused on diversifying our product offerings and driving profitable growth by optimizing our operational footprint,” a HelloFresh spokesperson said in an emailed statement obtained by Grocery Dive. “As a result, we have made the difficult decision to consolidate our operations in Texas.” HelloFresh made a similar restructuring move in Arizona, after laying off 564 employees, according to a A WARN notice filed in January.

Otorio, March 17, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 45 people, 56% of workforce.

Cybersecurity company Armis has laid off 45 employees from Israeli startup Otorio, which it acquired earlier this month for $120 million, according to Calcalist. The cuts are set to impact 56% of Otorio’s workforce, including 25 employees based in Israel. According to the report, Armis will retain only 35 development employees as part of the restructuring. A small number of affected employees were from Otorio’s development department, while the rest included employees from sales, marketing, finance and human resources.

Wayfair, March 7, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 340 people.

To simplify operations and realign the Technology team after making modernization and platform upgrades, Wayfair announced layoffs that will impact 340 employees within its Technology division, according to Yahoo. According to the report, Wayfair projects that the restructuring will incur costs ranging from $33 million to $38 million, mainly for severance, benefits, and transition-related expenses. Although Wayfair expects that transition costs will initially offset the savings from the restructuring, it anticipates gradual cost reductions starting in the second half of 2025 and continuing into 2026.

These charges will reportedly be spread over the next 12 months, with cash payments made throughout this time. Wayfair’s restructuring effort arrives after it completed an overhaul of its technology infrastructure, transitioning to a modern, scalable, cloud-based system. As a result, Wayfair is reorganizing its resources to better support its long-term objectives. In addition to these moves, Wayfair decided to close its Austin Technology Development Center (TDC), consolidating its operations into core hubs in Seattle, Mountain View, Toronto, Boston, and Bengaluru.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, March 6, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 2,500 people, 5% of workforce.

Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise fell 19% in extended trading on Thursday as the data center equipment maker issued quarterly and full-year guidance that came in below consensus, according to CNBC. As a result, HPE is initiating a cost-cutting program including layoffs that will impact 2,500 employees, or 5% of its workforce. The cuts will take affect over the next 18 months and will lead to $350 million in gross savings by the 2027 fiscal year. According to the report, HPE had higher than normal inventory for AI servers because of a shift to next-generation Blackwell graphics processing units from Nvidia. In addition to these changes, the company dealt with extensive discounting in the market while selling traditional servers during the quarter, finance chief Marie Myers said. As the quarter progressed, HPE moved to limit travel and discretionary spending.

TikTok, March 6, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 300 people, 10% of workforce.

After announcing a global restructuring in February, TikTok’s initial phase of that plan appears to be in motion as 300 positions are reportedly at risk at its Dublin headquarters, according to RTE. The Department of Enterprise reportedly received a collective redundancy notification from TikTok on Tuesday following a February announcement by the company that it would be undergoing global restructuring. The company employs nearly 3,000 people at the location, though it has yet to comment on the matter or provide the exact number of job cuts. According to the report, Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke has said that it is his understanding that redundancies at TikTok’s Irish operation will take effect in April. “TikTok is a significant employer in Ireland and as part of the proposed restructuring, [the] Government understands that there may be a number of open roles available to employees who are at risk of being made redundant,” Burke said in a statement. Stay tuned.

LiveRamp, March 5, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 65 people, 5% of workforce.

To refine its internal focus, enhance operational efficiency, and increase profitability, LiveRamp announced layoffs that will impact 65 employees, according to Benzinga. LiveRamp’s restructuring effort will affect 5% of its current workforce.

Ola Electric, March 3, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 1,000 people.

To mitigate its growing losses and control costs, the Bhavish Aggarwal-led electric vehicle company is planning to lay off more than 1,000 employees and contract workers, according to Inc42. According to Bloomberg’s initial report on the matter, Ola Electric’s layoffs will impact several departments, including procurement, fulfilment, customer relations and charging infrastructure. This week’s announcement is the company’s second round of job cuts in less than five months. In November 2024, Ola Electric laid off nearly 500 employees, though this figure does not include contract workers, who are not accounted for in the company’s official disclosures. “We have restructured and automated our front-end operations delivering improved margins, reduced cost, and enhanced customer experience while eliminating redundant roles for better productivity”, a company spokesperson said to Bloomberg without addressing the number of affected employees.

Rec Room, March 3, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 16% of workforce.

CEO and Co-Founder Nick Fajt announced layoffs in a public memo to staff on Monday that will impact 16% of Rec Room’s workforce, according to the company’s blog post. Despite making several restructuring moves to prevent a last resort scenario like mass layoffs, Rec Room’s long term financial strategy is prioritizing cost savings to sustain business operations. “Rather than hire externally, we re-trained individuals into new disciplines. We cut UA spending. We reduced third party spending by taking some key systems in-house. We made large reductions to our infrastructure spending which made it much more efficient to run the Rec Room service. We also launched Rec Room onto Nintendo Switch, the game console with the widest install base in existence,” Fajt wrote in the memo.

Rec Room is hoping to reconnect with its roots as a startup company by becoming a flatter organization, utilizing smaller cross-functional teams, and being scrappier and more efficient. According to the company’s Linked in account, it currently employs nearly 500 people, meaning the cuts could impact about 80 staffers. “When we last raised money, we budgeted for 5+ years because the economic outlook seemed uncertain for late-stage private companies. It remains uncertain three years later. Our current assumption is that we need to become self-sustaining using our current cash and not plan on any future fundraises. We need to control our own destiny by bringing in more money than we spend,” Fajt added.

ANS Commerce, March 2, 2025 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

After acquiring ANS Commerce just three years ago, Flipkart has decided to end business operations at the full-stack e-commerce enabler, according to ET Now. The move to close ANS Commerce and lay off its entire workforce is reportedly a major surprise based on a significant increase in operating revenue for the company. According to ANS Commerce’s LinkedIn account, the restructuring announcement could impact around 200 employees.

February 2025 Tech Layoffs

HP, February 28, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 2,000 people, 23% of workforce.

HP is laying off 2,000 employees as part of an ongoing restructuring plan called Future Now the company announced in 2022, according to the Los Angeles Times. HP’s Future Now plan was launched in response to declining sales for personal computers after the COVID-19 pandemic fueled the rise of remote work. According to the report, HP’s latest round of layoffs arrive as the company shifts its focus to cut costs amid economic uncertainty and increase its investments in AI. The company said it planned to lay off 7,000 employees over three years, according to its 2024 annual report.

Grubhub, February 28, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 500 people, 23% of workforce.

CEO Howard Migdal announced on Friday that Grubhub has laid off 500 employees as it focuses on aligning its business with Wonder after the takeover was completed last month, according to Reuters. The food delivery firm’s restructuring will reduce its workforce by 23%. According to the report, Grubhub was bought last year by food delivery startup Wonder, led by Walmart’s former executive Marc Lore.

Autodesk, February 27, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 1,350 people, 9% of workforce.

The design software maker said Thursday that it will lay off 1,350 employees, or 9% of its current workforce, according to CNBC. Autodesk is reportedly initiating the cuts to remain competitive in the current economy and protect its leadership in cloud computing and AI. “Our GTM model has evolved significantly from the transition to subscription and multi-year contracts billed annually to self-service enablement, the adoption of direct billing, and more,” Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost wrote in a memo to employees. “These changes position us to better meet the evolving needs of our customers and channel partners. To fully benefit from these changes, we are beginning the transformation of our GTM organization to increase customer satisfaction and Autodesk’s productivity.” According to the report, Autodesk will make facility reductions as well, though it will not close any offices.

Google, February 27, 2025 announcement. Layoff total TBA.

Google told employees in its “People Operations” and cloud organizations this week that it plans to initiate layoffs as part of internal reorganizations, according to CNBC. Google will reportedly offer a voluntary exit program to U.S.-based, full-time employees in People Operations, Google’s human relations division, starting in early March, according to a memo issued Tuesday by HR chief Fiona Cicconi obtained by CNBC. Separately, Google trimmed the headcount of several teams within its cloud unit, mostly affecting operations support staff, according to sources and separate internal memos. In addition, some of those moves include relocating roles to other countries. Google’s latest restructuring arrives after finance chief Anat Ashkenazi reportedly said one of her top priorities would be to drive more cost-cutting as the company expands its spending on AI infrastructure in 2025.

“Our teams have continued to make changes to operate more efficiently, remove layers, and ensure they are set up for long term success,” Google spokesperson Brandon Asberry said in a statement. “This work is ongoing as we continue to invest in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead.” Google’s cloud layoffs affected the unit’s sales operations, customer experience, internal deal and go-to-market teams, according to anonymous sources who spoke with CNBC. While the company confirmed the cuts, the total number of impacted employees remains unclear. Stay tuned.

Flywire, February 26, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 125 people, 10% of workforce.

The Boston-based payments company is undergoing a restructuring to increase productivity and optimize investments and said it would lay off 125 employees, according to MarketWatch. Flywire’s cuts will affect 10% of its current workforce. The announcement arrived on Tuesday after the company reported a significant loss in the fourth quarter that signaled lower-than-expected revenue in 2025, despite an acquisition that is expected to fuel operations.

eBay, February 26, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 20 people, 10% of workforce.

The e-commerce shopping giant will lay off a few dozen employees in Israel, with the exact number to be finalized after the upcoming hearings, according to Calcalist. According to the report, this is eBay’s fourth round of cuts in Israel and is expected to be the smallest, affecting around 20 employees out of its 250-person workforce. The company previously made layoffs in Israel in February 2023, December 2023, and June 2024. eBay has yet to comment on the matter. Stay tuned.

The software company that provides APIs to companies building online storefronts has laid off dozens of employees over the last few weeks, including around 10% of staff earlier Wednesday, according to TechCrunch. Commercetools’ restructuring move is reportedly a result of failing to meet its sales growth targets. In addition to the cuts, the company is initiating several executive changes, including dismissing its chief revenue officer and CFO, and reassigning the roles previously held by its chief information security and compliance officer. Commercetools is undergoing a significant restructuring that will impact marketing, sales, and internal operations such as HR and finance, according to a memo to staff shared by CEO Andrew Burton.

According to the report, select staff in customer and product development will also be cut “after reviewing performance and impact.” While Burton declined to comment on the exact number of affected employees, an anonymous source who spoke to TechCrunch, said Wednesday’s layoffs total more than 70 people and, including selective reductions he claimed happened over a period of several weeks, make up to 20% of staff. However, Commercetools disputes that there have been any layoffs beyond those announced Wednesday. In addition, Burton said the company has 25-30 open roles it’s looking to fill. Stay tuned.

Dayforce, February 26, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 5% of workforce.

The human resources software and services company plans to trim its workforce by 5% amid an effort to power profitability and growth, according to MarketWatch. According to LinkedIn, Dayforce employs around 10,000 people, meaning the layoffs could affect nearly 500 workers. On Wednesday, Dayforce reportedly said its restructuring plan will consist of efficient hiring, non-labor related savings and layoffs that are expected to be substantially completed by the end of March.

Expedia, February 26, 2025 announcement. Layoff total TBA.

The Seattle-based travel giant laid off an undisclosed number of employees amid an effort to reduce operating costs, according to GeekWire. About half of Expedia’s workforce are in tech-related roles. According to the report, marketing and creative teams were impacted by the layoffs based on LinkedIn posts. “To ensure the best traveler experience, we must continually adapt to the evolving needs of our industry and travelers,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to GeekWire. “This requires difficult but necessary decisions such as refining our marketing strategies, improving efficiencies, and reallocating resources to areas with the greatest business impact to drive customer engagement.” Stay tuned.

Skybox Security, February 24, 2025 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

The Israeli cybersecurity firm has shutdown business operations and laid off all 300 of its employees, according to CTech. Skybox Security reportedly employed 100 people in Israel and another 200 in the US. According to the report, employees in Israel were informed that their final salary would not be paid and were advised to contact the National Insurance Institute. On Monday, Skybox’s CEO, Mordecai Rosen, reportedly held a meeting with employees to officially announce the company’s closure and the layoffs, while an email was sent to all employees regarding their next steps simultaneously. In a statement shared with its employees, Skybox announced that it is entering the final phase of its existence and is shutting down. “Liquidation is the final step in closing a company. It involves ceasing operations, selling assets, and using the proceeds to pay creditors, including employees.” In addition, Skybox sold all its business and technology to Israeli cybersecurity company Tufin.

HerMD, February 24, 2025 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

HerMD is shutting down business operations and laying off at least 50 employees, despite raising millions in venture capital funding, according to Cincy Inno. The Cincinnati-based health care startup reportedly blamed ongoing challenges in the industry that it said made the business difficult to sustain. According to HerMD’s LinkedIn profile, the company employed at least 50 people.

Zendesk, February 21, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 51 people.

The San Francisco-based software company is laying off at least 51 employees at its headquarters on Fremont Street, according to state filings with the Employment Development Department obtained by Kron4. Zendesk’s latest cuts follow a 2023 round of layoffs in which the company trimmed its workforce by 8%.

SeatGeek, February 20, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 150 people, 15% of workforce.

Employees in New York City and Berlin were among those to announce being laid off from SeatGeek on LinkedIn Wednesday, according to The Ticketing Business. While SeatGeek has yet to officially confirm the cuts, it appears that a 15% workforce reduction reportedly took place, according to numerous individuals currently listed as SeatGeek staff members on LinkedIn. Software engineers and UX specialists are reportedly among those to announce their departures from SeatGeek. Stay tuned.

Vendease, February 19, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 120 people, 44% of workforce.

The Y Combinator-backed food procurement startup in Nigeria initiated its second round of cuts in just five months as part of a broader restructuring plan to reach profitability and extend its financial runway, according to TechCabal. Vendease is parting with 120 employees, or 44% of its workforce, following a 20% workforce reduction in September 2024 that impacted 68 employees. The restructuring move reportedly aligns with Vendease’s shift toward a more capital-efficient model while it seeks to close a Series A extension round. “Restructuring takes time and happens in phases,” Mohamed Chaudry, Vendease’s Chief Financial Officer, told TechCabal. He said the company is moving toward a “lean team” to improve operational efficiency. In addition to the cuts, Vendease repurposing its buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) offering from a loss leader to a revenue-generating product. The company also introduced in-house AI technology to automate previously manual processes, such as demand forecasting and resource planning.

Riskified, February 19, 2025 announcement. Layoff total TBA.

The fraud prevention company is laying off dozens of employees, including some in Israel, according to Calcalist. Riskfield is publicly traded on Wall Street with a market value of $930 million, though it reportedly has yet to reach profitability. While the total number of affected workers remains unclear, the company employed around 700 people prior to the cuts. Stay tuned.

Logically, February 17, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 40 people, 20% of workforce.

The British fact-checking startup company has laid off 40 employees as part of a company-wide effort to trim operating costs, according to Sifted. The restructuring move will impact 20% of Logically’s workforce due to some positions being made redundant. According to the report, Logically gained notoriety as misinformation concerns increased by winning multi-million pound government contracts to help combat the spread of conspiracy theories and bogus health advice online. The company has operations in the UK, US and India. “At Logically, we continuously assess our business to ensure we are best positioned for long-term success in delivering on our mission to combat threats online,” a company spokesperson told Sifted. “With recent new additions to our C-suite and a transition to being a more product-led business, we have reflected on our company strategy, needs and organizational structure, and made the decision to streamline our operations.”

Blue Origin, February 13, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 1,000 people, 10% of workforce.

After debuting its first orbital rocket, New Glenn last month, Blue Origin has announced plans to lay off over 1,000 employees, according to CNN. Blue Origin’s restructuring will impact about 10% of its workforce as the company finalizes its annual operating plan. In an email to staff sent Thursday, CEO David Limp said the job cuts will affect “some positions in engineering, (research and development), and program/project management and thinning out our layers of management.” According to the email obtained by CNN, Blue Origin’s road map emphasizes ramping up manufacturing and increasing the pace at which the company launches its rockets. “We grew and hired incredibly fast in the last few years, and with that growth came more bureaucracy and less focus than we needed,” Limp said in the email. “It also became clear that the makeup of our organization must change to ensure our roles are best aligned with executing these priorities.” The restructuring was not linked to a specific project at the company.

Sophos, February 13, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 300 people, 6% of workforce.

The U.K.-based cybersecurity company announced it is laying off 6% of its workforce just nine days after completing its $859 million acquisition of managed detection and response provider Secureworks, according to The Register. Sophos reportedly initiated the restructuring move to eliminate redundancies across the two companies now that Secureworks is no longer a publicly traded company. Sophos is privately held, and doesn’t disclose headcount, though it reportedly has between 4,500 and 5,000 employees, meaning around 300 layoffs were made. “In addition to aligning our business goals, changes in the cyberattack landscape are driving an urgent shift in security needs. With persistent increases in both targeted and opportunistic cyberattacks, organizations of any type and size are now battling both everyday cybercrime, such as identity theft, data theft and ransomware, and state sponsored attacks, which used to be more focused on specific enterprise or public sector targets,” a Sophos spokesperson said in a statement obtained by The Register.

Zepz, February 12, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 200 people, 20% of workforce.

British digital remittances company Zepz is laying off about 200 employees and is preparing to close business units in Poland and Kenya, according to CNBC. The restructuring will impact 20% of the company’s workforce. According to the report, former employees said the cuts are set to impact several IT functions at Zepz, including database administration, development operations and software engineering. While Zepz declined to comment on the number of affected employees, the company did confirm to CNBC that it was reducing headcount to “sustainably support the next phase of long-term strategic goals and continued growth.”

“Following the successful completion of its replatforming efforts, bolstered by advanced automation and AI, Zepz has embarked on a strategic initiative to optimise operations across the organisation,” a Zepz spokesperson told CNBC by email. “This transformation has reinforced the technology foundation and reduced the need for certain operational and technical capacities, prompting a proposed reduction in roles as part of the overall plan,” the spokesperson added. In 2023, Zepz laid off 420 employees, or 26% of its global headcount at the time. Later that year, the company laid off an additional 30 employees across its people and marketing functions.

Unity, February 11, 2025 announcement. Layoff toal TBA.

Unity initiated another round of cuts early Tuesday morning that will impact various teams, according to Game Developer. The game engine software company has reportedly spent $205 million laying off 25 percent of its workforce this fiscal year and could be adding to that amount. According to the report, a forum post from Behavior package tech lead, Shanee Nishry, stated their entire team had been laid off during another restructuring. Behavior is a visual tool for designing behaviors used to control NPCs and objects, which was reportedly created by the team on their own personal time before it evolved into a core Unity product. In addition, Unity lead game designer, André de Miranda Cardoso, explained they were also impacted by the sudden round of cuts. Game Developer has reached out to Unity for comment, though the total number of affected employees remains unclear. Stay tuned.

Meta, February 10, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 3,600 people, 5% of workforce.

The New York Times originally Meta is laying off 5% of its staff based on performance ratings, according to an internal memo shared with employees on Tuesday viewed by The New York Times. “I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, said in the memo. “We typically manage out people who arenThe New York Times originally reported that Meta was laying off 3,600 employees back on January 14. At the time, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the cuts in a memo to staff. “I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” Zuckerberg said. “We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”

However, as the layoffs began on Monday, some employees who insist they received good performance reviews and were not designated as the lowest performers have reportedly been impacted by the restructuring. According to a report from Yahoo Finance, one Meta employee posted on LinkedIn on Monday she was laid off after receiving an “exceeds expectations” rating on her midyear review. “I frequently asked for feedback and was always told I was doing a good job,” Kaila Curry, an ex-content manager at Meta, wrote in the LinkedIn post. “I was never placed on a PIP [performance improvement plan], never given corrective feedback, and never properly mentored or provided clear expectations. I simply put in the work… I am not a low performer.” In addition, another former Meta employee impacted by the cuts said the company’s claim that it is trimming dead weight is “flat-out wrong.” “I was let go today—but not because I was a ‘low performer,’” wrote LinkedIn user Steven S., a former product designer for Instagram. “Let’s be clear: that label is misleading, and for many of us, it’s flat-out wrong.” However, the individual didn’t provide the rating he received in the review. It remains unclear what Meta qualifies as a “low performer.” Stay tuned.

Justworks, February 10, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 200 people.

The New York-based payroll solutions company laid off 200 employees across multiple departments on Monday, according to a blog post from CEO Michael Seckler. “Justworks plays an essential role for the small businesses we serve. For this reason, we must always maintain a strong financial position and be resilient to potential adverse events—a recession, rising interest rates, a trade war, etc.—that could impact them,” Seckler wrote in the memo. Two years ago, Justworks pushed its investment and innovation to help more types of small businesses in more ways. “We launched Justworks Payroll, began serving customers in new industries, gave small businesses health insurance optionality, and—with Justworks International—began helping even the smallest companies confidently hire and employ people across the world,” Seckler wrote.

While those offerings suited Justworks’ customers and accelerated growth, Seckler admitted his vision was too optimistic. Justworks mistakenly expected white-collar small businesses to return to pre-pandemic levels of hiring, in addition to believing it could bring new offerings to market at scale quicker. “Because my most fundamental task as CEO is to ensure that Justworks remains strong for the small businesses who depend on us, I decided to reduce headcount and rethink the way we are operating to increase focus, speed, and growth,” Seckler said in the memo. As a result of the restructuring, Justworks plans to increase resilience, better align structure to strategy, and make it easier to do great work internally.

Bird, February 10, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 120 people, 33% of workforce.

The Amsterdam-based cloud communication service has laid off 120 employees, or 33% of its current workforce, according to TechCrunch. Bird – formerly known as MessageBird – initiated the restructuring amid an effort to reorganize its global operations to capitalize on tech’s ongoing AI boom. This is Bird’s second round of layoffs in under a year after the company let go of 90 employees in March 2024 following its rebrand. According to the report, Bird also cut prices at the time to combat to compete with Twilio, Klaviyo, and Attentive. In an emailed statement to TechCrunch, founder and CEO Robert Vis confirmed the number of employees impacted, adding that most of them were in Europe. “While Bird was founded in Amsterdam and built strong European roots, our customer footprint has grown significantly in the Americas and Asia. This realignment will position our teams closer to our customers, enabling us to better serve them in their local time zones and cultural contexts,” Vis said in the email. “The changes will help us return to the agile, focused model that drove our early success — starting with SMS and expanding to become one of the world’s largest providers of business communications solutions.”

Sprinklr, February 6, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 500 people, 15% of workforce.

Sprinklr, a U.S. software company known for developing a software as a service (SaaS) customer experience management (CXM) platform, has laid off about 500 employees, according to TechCrunch. The cuts will reduce Sprinklr’s workforce by nearly 15% due to business performance not meeting expectations. “We will refocus and rebalance our investments, talent, and resources in order to better serve our customers and partners and help them realize the full value of our AI-powered platform,” a Sprinklr spokesperson said in a statement. According to the report, Sprinklr’s restructuring move will not affect C-level positions, and the company will continue making hires in high-priority departments to focus on its strategy.

Sprinklr’s latest round of cuts arrive less than a year after the company laid off 3% of its workforce in May, in addition to a 4% workforce reduction in 2023. The two earlier layoffs reportedly affected about 200 employees combined. Last week, Sprinklr appointed former PwC partner Jan Hauser and former Lenovo CEO and C3.ai founding member Stephen Ward as new board directors as it pivots to developing AI-led experiences. Current board member and audit committee chair, Ed Gillis, who has served since November 2015, is reportedly resigning from his position at the end of March.

Workday, February 5, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 1,750 people, 8.5% of workforce.

On Wednesday, Workday announced it will lay off around 1,750 employees, or 8.5% of its current workforce, according to CNBC. The restructuring was initiated as the human capital management firm shifts its focus to invest heavily in AI to counter a softer macroeconomic environment. Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach reportedly said the cuts are necessary to prioritize investments such as AI, while also freeing up resources to expand the company’s presence in different countries. In addition, the company also said it expects to close certain office spaces that it owns. According to the report, Workday’s cost reduction plans and subsequent actions associated with the restructuring should be completed by the second quarter of fiscal 2026.

Outbrain, February 5, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 200 people.

After completing its acquisition of French media company Teads, the Israeli digital advertising company Outbrain is laying off 200 employees at the merged entity, according to Calcalist. Most of the affected employees will reportedly be outside of Israel. The restructuring move is in an effort to eliminate duplicate roles at the merged company, which will be called Teads though Outbrain is technically the acquiring party. A core focus of the merger was to maintain the stronger and more recognizable brand moving forward. David Kostman, CEO of Outbrain, will serve as CEO of the new company while also holding the position of chairman at Israeli software company NICE. Following the completion of the deal, the European telecom corporation Altice, the current owner of Teads, will appoint two directors to the company, who will join the eight current directors of Outbrain. Significant credit from Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and other banks funded Outbrain’s acquisition. According to the report, the merged company will have 2,000 employees, 20,000 advertisers on its platform, and is expected to reach 2 billion consumers per month.

Sonos, February 5, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 200 people, 12% of workforce.

Interim CEO Tom Conrad announced layoffs on Wednesday that will impact 200 employees, according to The Verge. Conrad’s letter to employees was posted on Sonos’ website as the company shifts its focus to create a leaner organization. “Most significantly, we are reorganizing our Product organization into functional groups for Hardware, Software, Design, Quality and Operations, and away from dedicated business units devoted to individual product categories. With this simpler organization in place, cross-functional project teams will come together to improve our core experience and deliver new products,” Conrad wrote in the memo. This is Sonos’ second round of cuts in the last six months after it parted with 100 employees in August in response to its app controversy last year. In May 2024, Sonos reportedly released a completely rebuilt and overhauled mobile app for Android and iOS that was full of bugs and decreased speaker performance. According to the report, the app fiasco tarnished Sonos’ business and reputation, which ultimately led to the exit of former CEO Patrick Spence last month.

SRTX, February 5, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 140 people, 40% of worn Sonos’kforce.

Effective immediately, the Canadian material science and technology company is temporarily laying off approximately 40% of its nearly 350-person workforce and full-time equivalent contractors, according to a blog post from Founder and CEO Katherine Homuth. “The layoff is expected to last up to 6 months, allowing us to operate with the minimum team required to continue production and sales at forecasted levels for 2025. This period will give us the time needed to assess the impact of new economic headwinds and to close our active fundraise,” Homuth wrote in the memo to employees. SRTX’s restructuring move is a result of the announcement of new U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods last weekend. “These tariffs represent the worst-case scenario: a 25% duty added to an existing 16% duty, alongside the elimination of the de minimis exemption, which previously allowed our D2C packages under $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free. We had been bracing for the increase to 25% on our bulk B2B shipments to US retailers but were not expecting the tariff to be additive to the existing 16% duty on those shipments, or for it also be applied to our D2C orders,” Homuth said. Stay tuned.

Cruise, February 4, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 1,000 people, 50% of workforce.

Amid ongoing preparation to shutdown business operations, the autonomous vehicle company is laying off “nearly” 50% of its workforce, according to TechCrunch. These layoffs will impact around 1,000 employees, including Cruise’s CEO and several other top executives. According to the report, Cruise’s remaining workforce will move under its parent company General Motors (GM) as the automaker focuses its resources on improving its hands-free driver assistance system Super Cruise — and eventually rolls out personal autonomous vehicles. CEO Marc Whitten is set to leave Cruise this week, in addition to Chief Human Resources Officer Nilka Thomas, Chief Safety Officer Steve Kenner, and Global Head of Public Policy Rob Grant. The internal restructuring was reportedly announced by Craig Glidden, Cruise’s president and chief administrative officer. Chief Technologist Mo Elshenawy will remain with Cruise through the end of April to assist with the transition.

“As a result of the change in strategy we announced in December, today we will part with nearly 50% of our Cruise employee base, through a reduction in force,” Glidden said in the email to staff. “Anyone who has been through a reduction knows that days like this are extremely difficult, and today is no different. With our move away from the ride-hail business and toward providing autonomous vehicles to customers alongside GM, our staffing and resource needs have dramatically changed. Today’s actions align our teams to our new needs, and focus our efforts on continuing to build world-class AV technology.” After the internal announcement, GM sent out a press release sharing that it has completed its acquisition of GM Cruise Holdings LLC following the approval of GM’s merger offer by the Cruise board of directors. Cruise is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of GM.

Okta, February 4, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 180 people, 3% of workforce.

Just one year after it parted with 400 employees, the access and identity management company initiated another round of cuts on Tuesday that will impact 180 employees, according to TechCrunch. In addition to these cuts, Okta initiated a separate restructuring in February 2023 that impacted 300 employees. Though Okta has yet to share a total headcount of impacted employees from its latest round of layoffs, the company reportedly had about 5,300 employees at this time in 2024. Tuesday’s workforce reduction impacted 3% of its staff, according to an SEC filing obtained by TechCrunch. “Okta employees were notified today that we are eliminating approximately 180 roles to reallocate resources to new growth areas. We thank our outgoing colleagues for all they contributed to Okta and are committed to providing support and resources to help through this transition,” a company spokesperson said in a written statement.

AppsFlyer, February 4, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 100 people, 7% of workforce.

Appsflyer is laying off 100 employees in Israel and in the company’s additional global offices, according to Calcalist. The company currently employs 1,200 people, two-thirds of whom are based in Israel. Appsflyer’s restructuring is set to impact 7% of its global workforce. CEO Oren Kaniel announced the restructuring move in a letter to employees amid an internal effort “to ensure we remain agile, innovative, and positioned for long-term success.” According to the report, Kaniel said that Appsflyer will focus on AI and scalability as part of long-term growth plans.

Trip Advisor, February 4, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 75 people.

In an all-hands meeting Tuesday morning led by President Kristen Dalton, Tripadvisor announced layoffs that impacted about 75 employees and nearly 90 contractors, according to Skift. Two sources familiar with the cuts shared the news with Skift, though one of those sources insisted that the restructuring impacted 150 employees and contractors. In addition, employees in the U.S., Canada, and Europe were impacted by the move. While the company doesn’t comment on personnel matters, Skift’s report revealed that the layoffs impacted Brand Tripadvisor, and didn’t affect sister brands Viator and TheFork. The employees affected by the move reportedly worked in trip-planning, reviews, experiences, operations and engineering, among other areas of the company.

Salesforce, February 3, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 1,000 people, 1% of workforce.

Salesforce is laying off more than 1,000 employees as it simultaneously hires staff to sell new AI products, according to Reuters. Bloomberg News originally reported the restructuring on Monday. While the departments affected by the cuts currently remain unclear, displaced employees will be able to apply for other jobs internally, the Bloomberg report said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

January 2025 Tech Layoffs

Cushion, January 30, 2025 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

Fintech startup Cushion has shut down after being in business for 8 years, according to TechCrunch. The self-described “Plaid for buy now, pay later (BNPL),” raised over $20 million in funding during its period of operation. On Thursday, founder and CEO Paul Kesserwani posted on LinkedIn about the decision to shut down the company at the end of 2024. In the post, Kesserwani said that “despite bringing multiple new fintech products to market,” Cushion “didn’t reach the scale needed to sustain the business.”

Placer.ai, January 29, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 150 people, 18% of workforce.

The Israeli location analytics firm laid off 150 employees this month, accounting for about 18% of its total workforce of 850 people, according to Calcalist. Most of the employees affected by the restructuring are reportedly based in the U.S. “Placer is prioritizing profitability and adopting a more focused strategy to better serve our core markets while continuing to invest in the company’s long-term growth. To achieve this, we are streamlining operations and reducing costs in areas that are not immediately critical to our mission. These measures aim to create a leaner, more efficient organization positioned to capture future opportunities,” the company said in a statement confirming the cuts.

Amazon, January 29, 2025 announcement. Layoff total TBA.

Amid an effort to trim costs and reduce bureaucracy, Amazon is laying off dozens of employees in its communications department, according to Bloomberg. “Following a recent review, we’re making some changes to the Communications & Corporate Responsibility organization to help us move faster, increase ownership, strengthen our culture, and bring teams closer to customers,” Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said in an emailed statement obtained by Bloomberg. “As part of these changes, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles. We don’t make these decisions lightly, and we’re committed to supporting affected employees through their transitions.” According to the report, CEO Andy Jassy has eliminated tens of thousands of corporate roles in addition to a variety of moonshot projects since succeeding founder Jeff Bezos in 2021. Though Jassy insisted that Amazon’s mandate for corporate workers to report to the office five days a week this year was about reinforcing the company’s culture, the move was reportedly seen by many employees to force resignations without going through the expense of layoffs. However, the total number of impacted employees remains unclear currently. Stay tuned.

Digital River, January 28, 2025 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

The Minnetonka-based e-commerce company is closing its headquarters and laying off 122 employees globally after operating for over 30 years, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune. CEO Barry Kasoff reportedly announced the shutdown of Digital River in a message to employees on Monday, citing increased financial pressures including “the rapid contraction of key customers, combined with the headwinds presented by new deals with shorter payment terms and U.S. trade policies that impacted one of our largest customers.” “These challenges, coupled with rising operational costs and tax obligations, have impacted our ability to sustain operations,” Kasoff wrote. In addition, Digital River has suspended services to most of its global customers and initiated insolvency proceedings for its German entities.

Moon Active, January 27, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 100 people, 4% of workforce.

The Israeli mobile gaming company is initiating a round of layoffs that will impact at least 50 employees, though that headcount could reach closer to 100 employees, according to The Jerusalem Post. Several departments were impacted by the restructuring including marketing, screenwriters, animators and artists. Moon Active employs nearly 2,500 people globally and is one of Israel’s most secretive and profitable companies. The company is led by founder and CEO Samuel Albin and has reportedly operated for years without public relations campaigns and media interviews.

Stripe, January 21, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 300 people, 3% of workforce.

The payments platform Stripe has laid off 300 employees, or about 3.5% of its workforce, according to Business Insider. Chief People Officer, Rob McIntosh, announced the layoffs in an email to employees on Monday, obtained by BI. In addition, Stripe confirmed the restructuring move to BI. According to the report, McIntosh said that 300 employees — primarily in product, engineering, and operations — would be impacted by the layoffs but that Stripe still planned on increasing its head count to about 10,000 employees by the end of the year. The Irish American multinational, which has dual headquarters in San Francisco and Dublin, laid off more than 1,000 employees in 2022. At the time, the move accounted for 14% of Stripe’s workforce. “As we’ve been working through our plans for 2025, leaders took a close look at their organizations and team structures. It became clear that there were several team-level changes needed to make sure we have the right people in the right roles and locations to execute against our plans,” McIntosh wrote in the memo to staff.

Unbabel, January 20, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 66 people, 25% of workforce.

The Portuguese technology company is restructuring its workforce and laying off 25% of its staff, according to Observador. Unbabel confirmed the news with the outlet, though it would not reveal the total headcount. According to the report, the online platform Teamlyzer originally reported that about 66 employees were affected by the move that is set to impact departments companywide. In a statement sent to Observador, Vasco Pedro, CEO of Unbabel, said “the technology market is changing rapidly, with the increasing adoption of AI [artificial intelligence] in translation.” “In this regard, Unbabel is currently undergoing a restructuring process, which aims to adapt the company to market developments and prepare it for future investment opportunities in R&D [research and development] and growth,” Pedro said.

Chrono24, January 16, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 110 people, 24% of workforce.

Chrono24, a pioneer in the development of a tech and data-driven online marketplace for luxury watches, announced it is laying off 110 employees as it pivots to a new organizational and management structure, according to WatchPro. The restructuring will impact about 24% of the German company’s workforce. Affected employees were reportedly notified on Wednesday, a source familiar with the restructuring and new business plan told WatchPro. Chrono24 wants to be at least 10% bigger than its nearest watch trading competitor in every major market, according to the report.

Pocket FM, January 16, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 75 people.

In an effort to trim costs and reach profitability, Pocket FM laid off 75 employees, according to YourStory. Moneycontrol was the first to report on the restructuring announcement. In a statement sent to YourStory, a spokesperson for PocketFM said, “As part of our commitment to building a more efficient and profitable organisation, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with close to 75 of our valued team members. This step, while challenging, was necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability and success of our organization. We deeply appreciate the contributions of those affected and are committed to supporting them through this transition.” This is the second round of cuts at the company since 2024. Last year, PocketFM laid off about 200 writers and 50 employees in its ongoing efforts to trim costs and become profitable.

Aurora Solar, January 16, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 58 people.

San Francisco solar energy software company Aurora Solar plans to lay off 58 employees based at its headquarters at 153 Kearny St., according to the San Francisco Examiner. Aurora Solar reportedly alerted state employment officials in a letter last Friday. The layoffs were effective immediately, Amrita Kundu, its senior director of legal operations, said in the letter according to the Employment Development Department. As a result, Aurora laid off its directors of customer success, engineering, technical accounting and financial reporting, professional services, business operations and product design, Kundu said in the letter. In addition, these positions will be eliminated permanently as the company looks to refocus its business. Aurora’s restructuring move is reportedly in response to “ongoing macroeconomic challenges and continued uncertainty in the solar industry,” it said in an emailed statement.

ShareChat, January 15, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 27 people, 5% of workforce.

Vernacular social media platform ShareChat is reportedly laying off nearly 5% of its workforce, according to Entrackr. This is ShareChat’s second round of cuts in the past six months, as it cut 5% of its workforce as part of its mid-year performance cycle in August 2024. “The company is not undertaking any layoffs. We are in the middle of our annual appraisal cycle and as a part of our bar raising process, we replace bottom performers every cycle. Less than 5% of our headcount is impacted by this. Most of these positions will be subsequently filled with replacements. The company is not undertaking a cost-cutting exercise at this point,” said CFO Manohar Singh Charan.

Textio, January 15, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 15 people.

The Seattle-based augmented writing startup is going through an internal restructuring and confirmed it laid off 15 employees on Wednesday, according to GeekWire. Textio has yet to specify how many employees it currently has, though there were more than 70 employees on staff after initiating layoffs last year. “The side of our business that supports our Feedback product is growing, and we needed to invest in a different mix of roles and skills to continue building and selling,” a Textio spokesperson said in a statement to GeekWire.

Meta, January 14, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 3,600 people, 5% of workforce.

Meta is laying off 5% of its staff based on performance ratings, according to an internal memo shared with employees on Tuesday viewed by The New York Times. “I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, said in the memo. “We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.” According to Zuckerburg, employees impacted by the restructuring will be replaced by new hires in 2025. Meta’s layoffs arrive just days after the company announced drastic changes to its content moderation policies. The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, reportedly said it would no longer police certain types of hate speech, including allowing users of its apps to suggest that L.G.B.T.Q. identities are rooted in mental illness. Last week, Zuckerberg said the company was terminating its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, effective immediately. Bloomberg broke the news in a report earlier. A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment on the matter.

Microsoft, January 14, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 1% of workforce.

Microsoft announced on Wednesday it is laying off employees across departments based on performance, according to CNBC. “At Microsoft we focus on high-performance talent,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email to CNBC on Wednesday. “We are always working on helping people learn and grow. When people are not performing, we take the appropriate action.” Business Insider initially reported the restructuring plans late Tuesday. Less than 1% of Microsoft’s employees from security, sales and gaming departments are set to be impacted by the restructuring.

Advisor Credit Exchange, January 14, 2025 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

Advisor lending technology startup Advisor Credit Exchange is shutting down on January 31, according to Citywire. While the number of impacted employees has yet to be confirmed, Advisor Credit Exchange reportedly informed its clients of the pending shutdown this week. Headquartered in Berwyn, Pa., Advisor Credit Exchange is backed by venture capital investor Magis Capital Partners and Envestnet, one of the largest software developers and investment outsourcers in the wealth management industry. Around 50 employees could be affected by the shutdown, according to ACE’s LinkedIn account.

TechCrunch, January 14, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 10 people.

A spokesperson for TechCrunch confirmed an internal restructuring to Business Insider and said less than 10 employees were laid off, according to Business Insider. “We’re excited about the future of TechCrunch,” the spokesperson said in a statement, adding the company was “making changes to some roles that no longer fit our evolving needs.” However, TechCrunch will continue to grow and hire new employees. “This adjustment reflects our commitment to aligning our team structure with our business goals and not a cost-cutting effort,” the spokesperson added.

Wayfair, January 10, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 730 people, 3% of workforce.

Wayfair announced on Friday that it will be exiting the German market and laying off 730 employees, or about 3% of its global workforce, according to CNBC. The company is restructuring as it reportedly looks to focus on new growth drivers such as physical retail. Corporate roles as well as roles on Wayfair’s customer service and warehouse teams were impacted by the cuts. “In our recent assessment, we concluded that achieving market-leading growth in Germany remained a long and costly endeavor, and one that is increasingly lagging the potential return we see in other areas. To ensure we align our resources with initiatives that can deliver the greatest impact, we made the difficult but necessary decision to reallocate efforts to areas with strong long-term potential where our current efforts are showing great progress,” wrote founder and CEO Niraj Shah in a memo to employees. This is Wayfair’s fourth round of layoffs since 2022.

Pandion, January 10, 2025 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

The Bellevue, Wash.-based delivery startup that launched during the pandemic is shutting down immediately after failed negotiations with potential acquirers, according to GeekWire. Pandion informed all 63 employees of the shutdown Friday afternoon. In addition to the cuts, Pandion’s headquarters in Bellevue will close, as will its five sortation centers, in Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia. “Because we owe more than we have in the bank, we cannot provide a severance payment, even though you deserve more notice and a better outcome. I’m sorry. I take full responsibility for the series of decisions that led to this situation. I care about you, and [I] apologize this is the outcome,” wrote founder Scott Ruffin in a memo to staff.

Zillow, January 10, 2025 announcement. Layoff total TBA.

Seattle-based real estate company Zillow Group laid off an unspecified number of employees on Friday, according to GeekWire. According to a statement from Zillow to GeekWire, the cuts impacted roles on reorganized agent software and advertising teams. “This week we’ve made some changes to the organizational structure of several agent software and advertising teams, resulting in the elimination of certain roles. We are grateful to the impacted employees for their contributions to Zillow and are ensuring their transition is as smooth as possible. While decisions like these are never easy and never our first choice, we believe responsibly managing our resources has positioned our teams well to deliver for consumers, agent customers and the broader real estate industry in 2025.” Stay tuned.

Icon, January 9, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 114 people.

The 3D-printing construction technology company announced it will lay off 114 employees in a WARN notice posted this week, according to the Austin American-Statesman. The employees’ final day with the company will be March 8. Icon is reportedly realigning its team and will continue development of its new robotic printing system, called Phoenix. “While our mission remains to develop these intelligent machines to build humanity’s future, we will continue to design and build a selection of key projects across residential, hospitality, social/affordable and those within the Department of Defense with a more streamlined team,” a company spokesperson wrote in a statement confirming the cuts.

Redfin, January 9, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 46 people.

The Seattle-based real estate company initiated another round of layoffs that will impact 46 employees, according to GeekWire. A Redfin spokesperson confirmed the cuts, which affected “primarily managers in our headquarters, program, and field leadership roles,” according to the company’s statement to GeekWire. However, no agents were impacted by the restructuring and Redfin said it is “continuing to aggressively hire agents.” Multiple rounds of cuts over the past two years have plagued the company as it continues to navigate a tough real estate market.

Cloud Software Group, January 7, 2025 announcement. Layoff total TBA.

Cloud Software Group, the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based cloud and virtualization technologies vendor, has conducted global layoffs, according to CRN. Cloud Software Group’s companies include Citrix, Tibco, NetScaler and XenServer. According to the report, LinkedIn posts from former workers revealed cuts of engineers, technical account managers and other roles. However, a CSG spokesperson declined to comment on the total headcount of impacted employees and their departments within the company. After reviewing its business, CSG felt that restructuring was the best course of action. “Unfortunately, that has resulted in an action taken today that eliminated a number of roles globally. Cloud Software Group remains committed to investing in innovation, additional product offerings, and top-notch talent to achieve even greater successes in bringing the highest quality products and services to market.”

Altruist, January 7, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 37 people, 10% of workforce.

Altruist laid off 10% of its workforce on Friday (Jan. 3) but “aggressive” hiring is ongoing, according to RIABiz. At least 37 employees will be impacted by the restructuring announcement, which reportedly came as a shock to several employees, both because it was abrupt and delivered in a manner that one staffer said, “lacked empathy.” “Altruist parted ways with approximately 10% of our team as part of a strategic effort to align every role with our mission and long-term objectives,” writes Jason Wenk, founder and CEO of Altruist. “This decision reflects our commitment to ensuring the best possible people are in every seat and was driven by a focus on investing in product development, growth, and innovation.”

The restructuring impacted several roles, including talent acquisition, product, engineering, and corporate finance. Rumors of pending layoffs reportedly spread internally in early December. According to the report, RIABiz learned of the layoffs from three staff members who received pink slips before contacting Wenk, who confirmed the news and explained the moves. Geographically, the cuts extend to Dallas, Culver City, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Aqua Security, January 7, 2025 announcement. Layoff total TBA.

Aqua Security is laying off dozens of employees globally, including an estimated 20 in Israel, according to Calcalist. The cybersecurity company reportedly has 450 global employees, with its headquarters in Boston and Ramat Gan. According to Aqua, the layoffs are part of a strategic reorganization. In a statement obtained by Calcalist, Aqua Security said, “We recently completed a strategic reorganization aimed at focusing on customer needs and flattening the organization. The new structure simplifies processes and points of contact with customers, enabling us to deliver better value and service. As part of this move, we regretfully had to say goodbye to a small portion of Aqua’s employees globally, including in Israel. Aqua is nearing profitability and is financially stable. These changes will enable us to continue driving growth and innovation while securing cloud native applications in the best way possible, creating new opportunities for both the company and its customers.”

SolarEdge, January 6, 2025 announcement. Layoff of 400 people.

The U.S.-based solar inverter maker announced on Monday it would lay off 400 employees globally, according to Reuters. The move marks SolarEdge’s fourth restructuring announcement in the past 12 months as the company reportedly continues to battle with an industry-wide decline. Those cuts occurred in January, July and November of last year. According to the report, SolarEdge is dealing with excess inventory as the solar market faces weak demand in major markets, particularly in Europe.

Level, January 2, 2025 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

The New York-based benefits startup founded in 2018, has shut down business operations, according to PYMNTS. Level is reportedly keeping a small team to assist customers during this transitional period. Level’s shutdown arrives as the company failed to find a buyer, The Information reported Thursday (Jan. 2), citing an email from Level CEO Paul Aaron to customers. “Unfortunately, the deal fell through at the last minute due to external challenges beyond our control,” the email said, according to the report. Aaron reportedly said in the email that benefits plans extending beyond the end of 2024 will terminate at the end of January, no new benefit plans will be offered for 2025, claims for existing plans can be submitted through the end of January, and any plan funds will be returned to customers on or shortly after Jan. 31. According to LinkedIn, Level employs about 200 people, though a total headcount of those impacted by the shutdown remains unclear.

December 2024 Tech Layoffs

Brave Care, December 31, 2024 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

The Portland-based pediatrics startup announced that it has permanently closed its small chain of clinics on its website, according to The Oregonian. Brave Care reportedly had two locations in Portland and one in Beaverton, in addition to a clinic near Austin, Texas. The shutdown will impact about 200 employees at the company, according to LinkedIn. While the cause of Brave Care’s shutdown remains unclear, high interest rates and economic uncertainty in recent years reportedly led to a decline in venture funding.

Epicery, December 31, 2024 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

The French food delivery startup will shut down business operations on Tuesday, according to TechCrunch. Epicery’s announcement reportedly marks its final holiday season run for the local food businesses that utilized the platform during its nine years in business in exchange for a 25% commission. The shutdown will impact about 200 employees, according to Epicery’s LinkedIn account. In a memo announcing the decision to customers earlier this month, Epicery’s decision was “the result of the economic and financial challenges we have been facing for several months, and which, despite our best efforts, we have been unable to overcome.”

Bench, December 27, 2024 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

The Canada-based accounting startup that offered software-as-a-service for small and medium-sized businesses, has unexpectedly shut down, according to TechCrunch. Bench shared the business update in a notice posted on its website, though its entire website is currently offline except for the notice. “We regret to inform you that as of December 27, 2024, the Bench platform will no longer be accessible,” the notice reads. “We know this news is abrupt and may cause disruption, so we’re committed to helping Bench customers navigate through the transition.” The notice recommends customers migrate to Kick, a new accounting startup that announced its $9 million seed raise in October 2024 in a round led by OpenAI and General Catalyst.

Thousands of customers remain in shock and limbo because of the shutdown. Bench reportedly touted having more than 35,000 U.S. customers just hours before it was shut down, according to a snapshot saved by the Internet Archive. Bench’s notice implores its customers to file a six-month extension with the IRS to “find the right bookkeeping partner.” Customers will be able to download their data by December 30 and will have until March 2025 to complete any necessary downloads. Bench’s shutdown will impact at least 450 employees.

Lilium, December 23, 2024 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

The electric aircraft startup has ended business operations and laid off nearly 1,000 employees after the company’s efforts to secure financing and exit insolvency failed, according to TechCrunch. The publication Gründerszene broke the news regarding Lilium’s restructuring. The move is surprising from the former unicorn in the nascent industry of electric aircraft that reportedly raised more than $1 billion before going public. “After 10 years and 10 months, it is a sad fact that Lilium has ceased operations. The company that Daniel, Sebastian, Matthias and I founded can no longer pursue our shared belief in more environmentally friendly aviation. This is heartbreaking and the timing feels painfully ironic,” Lilium co-founder Patrick Nathen wrote on LinkedIn confirming the news. The cuts arrive just one week after about 200 workers were let go, according to a regulatory filing on December 16.

BionicHIVE, December 22, 2024 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

The Amazon-backed robotics startup is shutting down after accumulating $18M in debt and filed a request with the Be’er Sheva District Court for liquidation, alongside a stay of proceedings and the appointment of a temporary trustee, according to Calcalist. Judge Yaakov Persky reportedly approved BionicHIVE’s request and issued an order halting all proceedings. Currently, no legal action can be initiated against the company, nor can its debts be collected. According to the report, BionicHIVE’s economic downturn was directly caused by the effects of the “Swords of Iron” war on the Israeli economy. The war had a profound impact on the high-tech sector, which relies heavily on investment capital. BionicHIVE’s shutdown will impact nearly 50 employees, according to the company’s LinkedIn account.

Refinery29, December 17, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 10 people, 10% of workforce.

The female-focused digital media outlet has initiated a subtle restructuring that reduced its workforce by 10% workforce, in addition to CEO Cory Haik exiting the company, according to Axios. The cuts will impact less than a dozen employees at Refinery29. Following Vice Media’s bankruptcy buyout, Refinery29’s sale to Sundial Media Group in April was reportedly viewed as a potential lifeline for the brand. Sundial Media Group has not named an interim CEO. According to the report, Refinery29 is actively working to shift its business away from programmatic advertising and toward events and branded services, which is part of a larger effort to realign its portfolio and position itself for growth.

Yahoo, December 12, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 50 people, 25% of workforce.

Yahoo laid off about 25% of its cybersecurity team over the last year, according to TechCrunch. Since the start of 2024, at least 40-50 employees have reportedly been laid off or lost through attrition from the cybersecurity team known as The Paranoids. Several current and former Yahoo employees spoke to TechCrunch on condition of anonymity regarding the restructuring move. The Paranoids are not the only team affected by the layoffs. Valeri Liborski, who was appointed Yahoo’s chief technology officer in September, sent an email this week to employees announcing changes across the broader technology unit, including enterprise productivity and core services. The Paranoids’ red team, or offensive security team, was eliminated entirely this week. There have reportedly been at least three rounds of layoffs impacting the cybersecurity team this year.

“Yahoo’s security program has matured significantly over the past seven years and is widely recognized as a world-class, industry-leading operation. As part of this evolution, we’ve made strategic adjustments, including transitioning offensive security operations to an outsourced model,” said Yahoo spokesperson Brenden Lee. “This change reflects the sophistication of our program and enables us to concentrate resources on critical security priorities, maintaining the highest standards of protection for our users and platforms.” Yahoo laid off more than 1,600 employees, or 20% of its total workforce last year, according to a report from Axios.

Foundry, December 11, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 74 people, 27% of workforce.

The world’s largest BTC block reward mining pool operator has laid off 27% of its workforce amid revenue struggles despite the ongoing bull market, according to CoinGeek. At least 74 employees are set to be impacted by the restructuring announcement. According to CEO Mike Coyler, most of the cuts affected Foundry’s American operations, where 44 employees were let go. In addition, Indian workers were also impacted because of the move. The cuts are reportedly part of a “strategic decision to focus Foundry on our core business—operating the number one BTC mining pool in the world and growing our site operations business,” the company said in a statement. The announcement arrived just days after Foundry moved 20 staff members from its mining business to Yuma, a new decentralized AI startup spun off from its parent company, Digital Currency Group (DCG).

Calendly, December 11, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 70 people, 13% of workforce.

In a memo to staff on Wednesday morning, CEO Tope Awotona announced that Calendly is initiating “strategic reorganizations” across several departments that include layoffs set to impact 70 employees, according to Yahoo Finance. Calendly’s engineering, customer experience, marketing, and billing departments will be affected by the organizational changes. According to Business Insider, two people familiar with the matter revealed that 46 people on the engineering team were laid off, 16 on the customer experience team, seven in marketing, and two in billing.

OfferUp, December 11, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 110 people, 22% of workforce.

The Seattle-based company behind a popular used goods marketplace is laying off 22% of its workforce to remain profitable as it pivots to expand into new product lines, according to GeekWire. CEO Todd Dunlap announced the cuts in a memo to staff citing macroeconomic trends such as programmatic ad rates that affected some of the company’s revenue. While Dunlap didn’t disclose the total number of impacted employees, OfferUp has about 500 employees, according to LinkedIn. The restructuring could impact up to 110 people. “After careful consideration, we have made the decision to reorganize our team to better align with our goals and strategy for 2025 and beyond. Unfortunately, as part of that reorganization, we will be reducing the size of our team,” Dunlap wrote in the memo.

Spotter, December 11, 2024 announcement. Layoff total TBA.

Spotter, a startup that underwrites creators and offers AI-driven tools, has laid off an undisclosed number of employees following its partnership with Amazon, according to The Information. The cuts were initiated in early November and impacted several areas of the Los Angeles-based company. The announcement arrives just three months after Spotter landed $7.4 million in funding to enhance its AI tools for creators. Amazon’s recent investment in Spotter is part of its broader plans to integrate the partnership across multiple areas of its business, according to Tech Startups. Stay tuned.

Bluevine, December 10, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 100 people, 18% of workforce.

The fintech company is laying off 100 employees, or 18% of its workforce, according to Calcalist Tech. At least 30 the impacted employees are in Israel. This is Bluevine’s second round of layoffs in just six months after it let go of dozens of employees in June. “In order to adapt to changes in the global market and to continue executing the company’s long-term strategy in an efficient manner aligned with our goals, it was decided to part ways with approximately 18% of the company’s global workforce. This decision comes alongside the continued growth of our small business banking platform, with the goal of ensuring its success for many years to come,” the company said in a statement.

Carousell, December 6, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 76 people, 7% of workforce.

The Singapore-based e-commerce platform announced on Friday that it is laying off 7% of its workforce across its regional offices, according to Channel News Asia. The restructuring move will impact 76 employees from both business and technology departments and enable “long-term sustainability and operational efficiency” at Carousell. “This reorganisation was done proactively to adjust our group strategic choices to match the market reality in some business units, and to reallocate resources to areas that are showing promise,” said a Carousell spokesperson. According to the report, 60% of the affected roles are based in Singapore, with the remaining spread across its other offices. Carousell has offices across eight locations in Southeast Asia, India, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Circle, December 5, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 50 people, 6% of workforce.

Circle Internet Financial, issuer of the world’s second-largest stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC), has initiated layoffs as part of a regular review of its operations, according to CoinDesk. The layoffs will impact “less than 6% of Circle’s workforce,” according to Bloomberg, which broke the news. Circle confirmed the figure in an email, which will impact more than 50 employees. “Circle regularly reviews our investments and expenses [which] includes investing in teams and operational infrastructure that need to grow, while marginally reducing spend and some roles in other areas of the business,” the company said in the email.

Vox Media, December 5, 2024 announcement. Layoff total TBA.

The digital media company is initiating an undisclosed number of layoffs and a major restructuring of its lifestyle properties, according to ADWEEK. Vox Media’s restructuring will primarily impact the titles Thrillist, PS (formerly PopSugar), and Eater, including the media production and technology team, CEO Jim Bankoff wrote to staff on Thursday. “The pace of change is accelerating for media businesses, and it is essential to our success that we continuously evaluate how and where we invest to serve our audiences best to advance the long-term health of our business,” Bankoff wrote. “In particular, the ways audiences are interacting with our Thrillist and PS brands have changed, and we must adapt.” According to the report, Thrillist will now be operated by Eater, a similar model to the relationship between Eater and the bar and spirits publisher Punch. The two will share leadership and resources.

Stash, December 4, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 88 people, 40% of workforce.

On Oct. 8, fintech startup Stash announced that its cofounders, who started the company in 2015 and had their roles reduced last year, were returning to lead the company they created, according to Yahoo Finance. However, there was reportedly one crucial detail left out of the announcement: Stash was also restructuring and laying off 40% of its 220-person workforce, including at least three of its executives, according to three people familiar with the matter and confirmed by Stash. This was the second mass layoff initiated at the company this year. The restructuring moves arrive just weeks after its CEO since 2023, Liza Landsman, suddenly left at the end of September. As a result of Landsman’s departure, Stash’s board, mostly filled by the company’s venture capital investors, approached cofounders Ed Robinson and Brandon Krieg to run the company as co-CEOs, Robinson tells Fortune. Stash hasn’t eliminated any of its products, and its employees are still working on the same tasks, albeit with smaller teams. “We just really wanted to try to remove a lot of the layers and just refocus the company,” Robinson said.

Booking Holdings, December 4, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 60 people.

The Connecticut-based travel company announced Friday that it will make several “organizational changes,” including an undisclosed number of layoffs, according to Yahoo Finance. According to a report from Skift, Booking Holdings laid off about 60 employees at one of its B2B units, Rocket Travel by Agoda, as part of the company’s recent efforts to reset its global priorities. These moves are designed to streamline Rocket Travel’s business operations. “We believe these efforts will improve operating expense efficiency, increase organizational agility, free up resources that can be reinvested into further improving our offering to both travelers and partners, and better position the Company for the long term,” Booking Holdings said in a statement.

2U, December 4, 2024 announcement. Layoff total TBA.

Today, interim CEO Matt Norden announced the company will eliminate its traditional bootcamps and reportedly transition to “innovative technical microcredentials,” according to Class Central. While 2U has yet to confirm the total number of cuts, impacted employees shared the restructuring news through posts on LinkedIn and industry forums. Norden’s announcement appears to signal a shutdown of 2U’s Trilogy division. Stay tuned.

Lightspeed Commerce, December 2, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 200 people.

As part of a strategic review of its business, the Canadian commerce platform on Monday said it will lay off about 200 employees, according to MarketWatch. However, the cuts won’t impact or inhibit the strategic review. Lightspeed reportedly initiated the restructuring plan to prioritize resources for strategic areas of the business, improve its growth opportunities, and redefine the organizational structure and its operations. This is the second round of cuts at the company this year. In April, Lightspeed laid off about 280 employees as part of a restructuring of costs at its facilities and throughout its operations.

November 2024 Tech Layoffs

AlphaSense, November 27, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 150 people, 8% of workforce.

After acquiring data provider Tegus, market-research startup AlphaSense laid off 150 employees as part of a restructuring, according to Bloomberg Law. The cuts will impact 8% of AlphaSense’s workforce as the company reportedly looks to eliminate redundancies and streamline business operations. “This decision helps ensure the company’s long-term success, and its stability and growth moving forward,” an AlphaSense spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg Law.

Ola Electric, November 22, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 500 people.

CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has initiated a restructuring plan that includes layoffs that will impact more than 500 employees across several departments, according to Tech in Asia. Ola Electric’s plan through this initiative is to improve its profit margins. Previously, in July 2022, Ola Electric reportedly let go of nearly 1,000 employees while closing its used cars, cloud kitchen, and grocery delivery businesses to focus on electric vehicles.

Adjust, November 22, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 304 people.

Amid an effort to combat redundancies, AppLovin-owned mobile app measurement and marketing company Adjust has laid off 304 employees, according to PocketGamer. At this time, it remains unclear how many staff and what departments were impacted. According to a recent WARN notice filed in California about two weeks ago, AppLovin said it was laying off 120 staff. According to PocketGamer’s report, a filing on October 15 said 58 employees would be laid off, while another on October 3 cited 65 cuts. In addition to these filings, one further back on August 14 noted 61 layoffs. Currently, it remains unknown if the redundancies are related and whether these are separate job cuts are part of the same round of layoffs.

Hopper, November 22, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 65 people, 10% of workforce.

The online travel agency initiated a restructuring this month that included a workforce reduction that will impact 10% of its staff, according to Skift. This is Hopper’s second round of cuts in just over a year. Hopper’s latest restructuring is set to impact 60-65 employees. The direct hotel team was affected the most as it parted with about 20 employees.

LinkedIn, November 21, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 202 people, 1% of workforce.

The job and social networking site has laid off 202 employees in its latest round of cuts amid a weaker tech job market, according to The Information. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft but operates independently in Sunnyvale and has offices in San Francisco. According to the report, employees working in engineering and customer service were impacted by the restructuring, though LinkedIn is still hiring in those departments. “We’re making changes within teams at LinkedIn to align our organizational structures and work to our strategic priorities and to support our customers. We are committed to providing our full support to impacted employees and ensuring that they are treated with care and respect,” a company spokesperson said.

Headspace, November 20, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 13% of workforce.

CEO Tom Pickett announced a 13% workforce reduction in an email to staff as Headspace embarks on a company “reset” to ultimately “return to our roots by driving innovations in both technology and care models that disrupt existing systems,” according to Behavioral Health Business. The digital mental health platform is eliminating its staff therapist corps, though an exact headcount remains unclear. In addition to the cuts, Headspace will transition Chief Product and Design Officer Leslie Witt and Chief Purpose Officer Dr. Wizdom Powell to advisory positions. “We recently made organizational changes at Headspace that aim to accelerate the evolution of our product and service offerings and position the business for continued, sustainable growth,” a company representative said in a statement. However, Pickett had a much different outlook on Headspace’s costs and revenue metrics.

“We believe that we are uniquely positioned to leverage the Headspace brand, our vast content and self-help capabilities, and our human care delivery network to stitch together unique, tech-enabled experiences that deliver superior outcomes at lower costs,” Pickett said. “To achieve that, we need to align our cost structure with our revenue base, while creating the opportunity to invest in the capabilities that will drive us forward.” The restructuring move reportedly arrives just four months after Headspace appointed Picket to the role of CEO.

Own, November 19, 2024 announcement. Layoff total TBA.

After acquiring the data management startup Own for about $2 billion, Salesforce Inc. is planning to lay off employees at the company since various roles will not be required “post harmonization,” according to Bloomberg. The restructuring was announced to employees of Own in a presentation this week. According to the report, the end date will be Jan. 31 for employees in those positions, while other jobs will be “transitional” and needed for three to 12 months to support the integration on a fixed short-term basis. The business move was Salesforce’s biggest acquisition since Slack. The $1.9 billion merger reportedly includes about 1,000 workers at Own. Stay tuned.

TrueLayer, November 15, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 71 people, 25% of workforce.

The London-based fintech firm laid off about 25% of its workforce in just one day as part of its plan to cut operating costs and reach profitability, according to City AM. The impacted employees reportedly left TrueLayer on the same as the announcement after attending a team meeting that was scheduled just two hours before they were informed of the restructuring. Though a spokesperson for Truelayer declined to comment on the details about the cuts, they said its latest funding round marked “yet another vote of confidence in our company.” “At the same time, we also announced important steps to chart our path toward profitability, including streamlining operational costs and a reduction in headcount which took place in September,” the spokesperson added.

Siemens, November 14, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 5,000 people.

CEO Roland Busch announced that Siemens could lay off up to 5,000 employees globally in its struggling factory automation business, according to Reuters. “Sometimes we have to do some re-engineering because the developments weren’t as positive as we expected them to be,” said Busch after Siemens reported a 46% decrease in profit at its flagship digital industries business. “This means we are going to have a low- to medium-sized four-digit amount which will affect some areas,” Busch said. While the total number of impacted employees has yet to be confirmed, Busch reportedly added that he saw long-term potential for the automation market, because of shrinking populations and the low level of mechanization at small and medium-sized companies. Stay tuned.

AMD, November 13, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 1,000 people, 4% of workforce.

In an effort to increase its leverage in the booming AI chip industry where Nvidia is king, AMD announced on Wednesday that it will lay off 1,000 employees, or 4% of its global workforce, according to CNBC. “As a part of aligning our resources with our largest growth opportunities, we are taking a number of targeted steps that will unfortunately result in reducing our global workforce by approximately 4%,” an AMD representative said in a statement. Currently, AMD’s largest growth opportunity is presented by AI. The company is the second-biggest producer of graphics processing units, or GPUs, behind Nvidia.

AppLovin, November 13, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 120 people.

After experiencing a scorching hot stock market run this year, the Palo Alto-based advertising software company announced it is laying off 120 employees in a WARN notice on Wednesday, according to SFGate. The restructuring announcement arrives just one week after AppLovin basked in the glow of an enormous $41-billion-in-two-days rally in market value. According to the report, AppLovin’s value has increased by more than 600% since January, and, as of Friday, it was worth just under $98 billion. While the company has yet to disclose the reasoning behind the cuts, three vice presidents are reportedly among the layoffs, plus nine directors, more than 24 software engineers and a variety of other workers. In addition to these roles, employees at AppLovin subsidiaries Lion Studios, Wurl and MZ Games were also impacted.

Chegg, November 12, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 319 people, 21% of workforce.

The e-learning company is laying off 319 employees, according to The Wall Street Journal. The cuts will account for 21% of Chegg’s workforce, and the company expects to fall short of its previously announced financial targets for 2025. According to the report, AI tools continue to negatively impact its online homework solutions business. CEO Nathan Schultz said the popularity of ChatGPT and the introduction of AI summaries in Google search were weighing on Chegg’s revenue expectations. In addition, Schultz said web traffic from non-subscribers declined 37% in October compared to the same month last year.

Forward, November 12, 2024 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

The health tech startup is shutting down just one year after raising $100 million in funding to support its CarePods rollout, according to Business Insider. That fundraise pushed Forward’s total funding over $650 million. At least 200 employees will be impacted by the move. The company announced the closure on Tuesday, in addition to sending a late-night email to its patients saying it would immediately close all its locations, cancel scheduled visits, and cut off access to its mobile app. Forward’s clinical team is reportedly available by email until December 13 for remaining patient support. The company was founded in 2017 by several high-profile executives from Google and Uber and aimed to disrupt primary care with tech-enabled, ultramodern clinics. However, an AI-powered doctor-in-a-box became its priority in mid-2023.

New Relic, November 12, 2024 announcement. Layoff total TBA.

Just one year after going private in a $6.5 billion private equity deal, the San Francisco software maker initiated its second round of layoffs this year, according to Business Journals. While New Relic has yet to confirm a workforce reduction, the cuts are reportedly part of a company reorganization that will impact engineering, product and design teams. Former employees of New Relic posted messages on LinkedIn acknowledging their departure from the company. Stay tuned.

Enphase Energy, November 11, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 500 people, 17% of workforce.

The Fremont-based solar technology and electric vehicle charger company is laying off 500 employees amid slumping conditions in the solar and battery industries, according to SFGate. In a Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Enphase announced that 17% of its global workforce would be impacted, including contractors. In addition to the cuts, the company will reportedly continue to consolidate its manufacturing business. Enphase’s latest round of layoffs arrive less than one year after it cut 10% of its workforce, due to regulatory changes and low consumer demand for solar technology amid high interest rates. Unfortunately, it appears these challenges are still plaguing the tech giant. “We are decreasing spending in every department by reducing headcount, non-people related expenditures, or both,” CEO Badri Kothandaraman wrote in a memo to staff. “These actions are not a reflection of poor employee performance, but we believe they are necessary in the current market environment.”

23andMe, November 11, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 200 people, 40% of workforce.

The genetic testing firm said on Monday it is laying off 200 employees and discontinuing further development of all its therapies as part of a restructuring program, according to CNN. The restructuring will impact 40% of 23andMe’s workforce, as the company reportedly evaluates strategic alternatives, including licensing agreements and asset sales, for its therapies in development. “We are taking these difficult but necessary actions as we restructure 23andMe and focus on the long-term success of our core consumer business and research partnerships,” said CEO Anne Wojcicki regarding the cuts. According to the report, Wojcicki has been trying to take the company private since April and is facing a tough challenge after independent directors of 23andMe resigned in September, after not receiving a satisfactory take-private offer from the CEO.

Monarch Tractor, November 8, 2024 announcement. Layoff of 35 people, 10% of workforce.

The California-based autonomous electric tractor startup that raised a total of $220 million since being founded in 2018 is laying off 10% of its workforce, according to TechCrunch. In addition to the cuts, Monarch Tractor is reportedly restructuring its business to prioritize non-agricultural customers, license its autonomous technology, and boost sales of its AI-powered farm management software. This is the second round of layoffs at Monarch this year after it parted ways with 15% of its workforce in July. Engineering and operations teams were impacted most by the cuts.

CEO Praveen Penmetsa told TechCrunch in an interview the company decided to restructure after a slower-than-expected third quarter, and despite raising $133 million in July from the likes of Foxconn and agri-food tech impact firm Astanor. “The industry has slowed down on acquisition of new equipment and new solutions, especially in the core farming sectors,” Penmetsa said. “But in the meantime, as a platform company, we also have some very exciting non-agriculture opportunities that started sprouting because of our success in ag.”

BigCommerce, November 8, 2024 announcement. Layoff total TBA.

After cutting 13% of its staff in 2022 followed by 7% in 2023, the Austin-based tech company is laying off employees for the third straight year, according to the Business Journals. In addition to the workforce reduction, BigCommerce is reportedly exiting some of its real estate positions and discontinuing some software projects. While the company has yet to confirm the number of employees impacted by the restructuring, it did replace longtime CEO Brent Bellm recently. “Despite our growth and many achievements over the last several years, our operational performance has fallen short of expectations,” Ellen Siminoff, executive chair of the board, said in a Nov. 7 earnings call. During that call, the company said that the move is aimed at better aligning operating expenses with current economic conditions and its priorities.

Booking.com, November 8, 2024 announcement. Layoff of entire workforce.

The Connecticut-based travel company is restructuring its organization and laying off

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After a brutal year of layoffs in 2023, companies this year have continued to cut jobs across tech, media, finance, manufacturing, and retail.

Tech titans like Meta, IBM, Google, and Microsoft; finance leaders like Goldman Sachs, Citi, and BlackRock; accounting firms like PwC; entertainment behemoths like Pixar and Paramount; and corporate giants like Tesla, Dow, and Nike have all announced layoffs.

A survey in late December said nearly 40% of business leaders had expected layoffs this year, ResumeBuilder said. ResumeBuilder talked to about 900 leaders at organizations with more than 10 employees.

One major factor survey respondents cited was artificial intelligence. Around four in 10 leaders said they would conduct layoffs as they replace workers with AI. Last year, Dropbox, Google, and IBM announced job cuts related to AI.

Here are the dozens of companies with job cuts planned or already underway in 2024.

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There’s an adage in venture capital that great companies are born out of hard times. Amazon survived the dot-com bubble. The Great Recession gave us Uber and Airbnb.

At this rate, 2024 will be a banner vintage for funds to invest in startups. These young companies have weathered an economic meltdown, a bank collapse, and the biggest platform shift in technology since cloud computing.

To identify which startups have a head start on success, we asked venture capitalists from firms such as Accel, GV, Founders Fund, Greylock, Harlem Capital, IVP, and Khosla Ventures, as well as managers of newer and boutique funds, to name this year’s most promising startups. We asked investors to put forward one portfolio company and one startup in which they have no financial ties.

The year’s biggest themes were data infrastructure, security, and personalized agents as every startup, from a clinician’s scribing solution to tax software, confronts how to grow and flourish in an age of AI-everything.