Space and defense startup A true anomaly has laid off about 25% of its workforce and canceled its summer internship program, according to TechCrunch.
“With our rapid growth over the past two years, we’ve looked at every aspect of our company to make sure we’re laser-focused on our goals and in the best position to execute,” a company spokesperson said. “We identified duplication of roles and functions across the company and therefore reduced our headcount. This will not affect our ability to fulfill our contracts with customers or our mission to bring safety and sustainability to the space sector.”
While TechCrunch could not confirm the total number of employees before these layoffs, True Anomaly had more than 100 employees as of December 2023, he told Denver Business Journal. Almost 30 people were laid off from the workforce, according to a LinkedIn post by one of the people to leave.
Employees began posting on LinkedIn about the layoffs on April 24. According to these messages, the affected individuals worked in sales, business development and recruitment. At least some interns were suddenly informed that the summer internship program was canceled last Friday, April 19, as well. The internship was set to begin on June 1st.
The Centennial startup, based in Colorado closed a $100 million funding round last December; at the time, executives reported that the staff had grown to 107 employees. Earlier this month, True Anomaly CEO Even Rogers told TechCrunch during an interview at the company’s first assignment that the company was “well capitalized”.
True Anomaly hopes to modernize space defense with its Jackal spacecraft and Mosaic software platform for command and control operations. The startup envisions using orbiting Jackals to approach, image and gather information on other objects in orbit.
True Anomaly launched the first mission, called Mission X, on March 4, though it ended early after the company failed to establish reliable communications with the two spacecraft deployed in orbit. However, the anomaly is hardly slowing them down. The startup is pushing to launch at least twice more in the next 12 months, aiming for another launch in October, a person told TechCrunch.
The person was offered an internship and spoke to TechCrunch on condition of anonymity, saying a technical recruiter suggested the internship program was canceled because the company didn’t have the human bandwidth to organize and oversee an internship program. The team also gets to work the $30 million space response contract; that the company was awarded earlier this month, the person said.
