Amperity this week joined a growing list of Seattle startups that are trimming headcount.
The customer intelligence company laid off 13 employees, or about 3% of its staff, a spokesperson confirmed to Startup. The company employs 375 people and plans to hire an additional 25 across the organization.
“At Amperity, we are constantly monitoring our business to ensure there is alignment across the organization to support our strategic growth plans,” Amperity CEO Barry Padgett said in a statement Friday. “Today, we made the very difficult decision to eliminate thirteen roles primarily on our talent acquisition team. We are, however, continuing to hire and invest in specific areas of the business to help us execute on our growth strategy.”
Tech companies have been laying off employees and slowing hiring in an effort to cut expenses amid uncertain economic conditions.
Other Seattle-area tech startups including Flyhomes, Shelf Engine, Convoy, Outreach, Qumulo, and Esper have laid off employees in recent months.
Founded in 2016, Amperity’s software lets companies fine-tune their targeted marketing campaigns by connecting fragmented data sources about individual customer habits via emails, purchase history, mobile app usage, website traffic, physical store visits, etc. The idea is to give marketers a holistic understanding of a given user and increase sales while driving brand loyalty.
Amperity earned “unicorn” status in July 2021, reaching a $1 billion valuation after raising $100 million.
The company’s co-founder Kabir Shahani stepped down as CEO and a board member earlier this year, with no public explanation.
Padgett, who was previously president and COO, has been CEO since February of this year. He is a a veteran of Concur Technologies and former chief revenue officer at Stripe. Derek Slager, who co-founded Amperity with Shahani, remains at the company as CTO.
Shahani and Slager previously co-founded Appature, a health marketing startup that sold to IMS Health in 2013.
Amperity’s backers include HighSage Ventures, Tiger Global Management, Declaration Partners, Madrona Venture Group and Madera Technology Partners.
Its board includes Madrona Managing Director Matt McIlwain; Accolade CEO Raj Singh; former Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson; and singer-songwriter Ciara.