Veho, a package delivery company, has confirmed that it has cut 19% of its workforce, or about 65 jobs. As first reported by The Informationthose layoffs came after Veho grew revenue by nearly 90% in 2023.
“We have reorganized our corporate team to improve efficiency, accelerate our path to profitability and enable us to invest more in areas that directly impact our customers’ needs and our growth,” according to a company statement that sent to TechCrunch.
The logistics technology company, founded in 2016 by Itamar Zur and Fred Cook, follows the last mile of delivery – how packages get from fulfillment centers to the customer’s door.
At the beginning of 2022, Veho was not in bad shape. The company had grown 40% in revenue and 20% in customer base since the previous year. There were also plans to jump from 500 employees to 2,000 by the end of 2022.
He was also lucky in venture capital during the pandemic as markets shifted online. At the time, the company raised $170 million in Series B funding in a round led by Tiger Global Management that valued the company at $1.5 billion.
This follows the announcement of $125 million in Series A funding two months ago, the round that propelled Veho into unicorn territory. General Catalyst led this round.
With more than $300 million in venture-backed funding at its disposal, Veho added purchases and caused a series of strains in late 2022, including Eric Swanson as chief commercial officer and Brian McDevitt as chief revenue officer.
In the summer of 2023, the company launched 11 New England markets and worked with clients such as Kroger, Saks, Nordstrom, Misfits Market, HelloFresh and Nespresso. At the time, Veho said it had 910 employees in corporate and warehouse teams and was looking to fill additional positions.
Even with continued growth, the company was not without problems last year, according to The Information. These included laying off customer support staff and drivers and moving those jobs overseas.
Swanson then left in March, according to his own LinkedIn profile. In December, Veho appointed Deborah Surrette, formerly vice president of sales at Oracle, in that role. McDevitt’s social media profiles still say he is CRO, however, the Information reported that he has also left.
Increased freight rates and consolidation continue to affect the logistics industry, so we’ll have to see what happens. Veho remains optimistic, telling TechCrunch that its capital position “is very strong and we are building on our strong momentum and record peak season in 2023.”
