Grammarly lays off 230 employees globally as part of ‘business restructuring’, company says was announced this week. The layoffs are part of Grammarly’s efforts to advance its focus on the “future AI-enabled workplace,” the company says.
“To arrive at today’s decision, we took a look at our organizational design and the current skills of our teams through the lens of our company strategy,” Grammarly CEO Rahul Roy-Chowdhury said in a note to employees. . “As we intensify our focus on advancing the AI-enabled workplace and deepen our technical investments in AI, we will need a different mix of capabilities and skill sets. We also need to redesign our organization to improve the quality and speed of collaboration — and that means, among other things, restructuring roles and co-locating some teams.”
Roy-Chowdhury went on to say that the layoffs are not a cost-cutting measure, noting that Grammarly’s financial position is “strong.” It says the layoffs affect most Grammarly operations and geographies.
Affected employees will receive at least three months’ basic pay, along with health insurance benefits as applicable to their location.
The memo says that Grammarly has grown its team from 200 to 1,000 employees over the past five years, and that in that time, the company has seen changes in the industry and global environment, including the war in Ukraine and a “new era of artificial intelligence ». Roy-Chowdhury says these changes have challenged the company to be more “strategic”.
“As for the future of Grammarly: We see tremendous opportunities as every individual and business begins to harness the power of artificial intelligence,” said Roy-Chowdhury. “We will build on this foundation to bring even more value to our customers. Artificial intelligence will fundamentally change the workplace for the better – and Grammarly will play a leading role in driving that change.”
Grammarly is one of several tech companies that have made layoffs in the past month. Several tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, Snapchat, eBay, PayPal, DocuSign, Okta, Block, Discord, Twitch, and Duolingo have all made significant layoffs in just the past two weeks.
In November 2021, Grammarly raised $200 million in funding at a $13 billion valuation. At the time, Roy-Chowdhury told TechCrunch that the company planned to use the funding to continue investing in its AI technology.
