Bolt laying off employees

Bolt is a fast-growing online payments startup that was valued at $11 billion earlier this year. However, the Silicon Valley-based company recently instituted a hiring freeze and laid off employees among the souring fund-raising environment or startups. 

In a message to the employees,  Bolt's chief executive Maju Kuruvilla attributed the layoffs to "structural changes" amid "macro challenges". Mr.Kuruvilla wrote "The leadership team and I have made the decision to secure our financial position, extend our runway, and reach profitability with the money we have already raised." This adds to the already building pile of problems faced by the company including a lawsuit filed by one of their biggest customers. Bolt is said to have overestimated its capabilities in search of a higher valuation. Bolt has about 900 employees. However they aren't alone, Bolt just merely joined a long list of companies that have let go of employees. According to sources some 100 young startups have initiated a hiring freeze or let go of employees amid a worsening outlook for young companies. 

Bolt employees were not informed beforehand how many of their colleagues were fired or from which department but according to former and current employees, as and when people were informed that they no longer had a job, the number of participants on the company's main Slack channel kept falling which gave a fair idea. 

Source: The New York Times