Autonomous delivery startup Nuro to cut staff by 30%

San Francisco, May 13

US-based autonomous delivery robot startup Nuro has announced that it will be laying off 30 per cent of its workforce, or about 340 employees, as part of a restructuring intended to extend its capital runway.

Last week, Nuro co-founders Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu announced that the company would reduce staff and shift resources away from commercial operations and toward R&D, reports TechCrunch.

This year, Nuro will pause its plans to ramp up commercial operations and delay volume production of its third-generation delivery robot, the R3.

According to Ferguson and Zhu, the company will be able to operate twice as long by making these changes, giving it enough capital to operate for another three years without raising more money.

"While in the past we developed autonomy systems, designed and built custom vehicles, and deployed commercial pilots with partners in parallel, we will now pursue a more sequential development model," Nuro said in a blog post.

"With our new approach, Nuro will not only get through this economic downturn, but we hope to emerge stronger on the other side," it added.

This is the second time Nuro has laid off workers in a bid to cut costs and extend the capital runway.

In November last year, the company laid off about 300 people, or 20 per cent, of its workforce.

Moreover, the report said that those laid off will receive 12 weeks of severance, plus two more weeks for employees with two or more years of service, and eligible employees will receive 62.5 per cent of the target bonus (prorated for new hires) or spring bonus amounts for employees who receive a biannual performance bonus.

Meanwhile, web services company Akamai Technologies is laying off nearly 3 per cent of its global workforce, as it focuses on the highest growth areas and sustaining profitability.

According to reports, the layoffs are likely to impact about 300 employees.