Meditation app Calm lays off 20% of workforce

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Meditation and mental health wellness app Calm laid off 20% of its roughly 400-person workforce, according to a Thursday memo to staff from CEO David Ko. 

"Over the past few years, Calm’s mission to make people happier and healthier has never been more relevant – or more tested. We have helped millions of users world-wide navigate profound uncertainty. But, we as a company are not immune to the impacts of the current economic environment," Ko said. "In building out our strategic and financial plan, we revisited the investment thesis behind every project and it became clear that we need to make changes, including some difficult decisions, in order to ensure that the next 10 years of Calm are as successful as the first 10." 

While Ko acknowledged that the layoffs were not an easy decision, he believes that the changes will help the company "prioritize the future, focus on growth and become a more efficient organization." He added that the future of the business would be discussed in-depth during an all-hands meeting on Friday. 

Calm, founded in 2012, hit a $2 billion valuation in December 2020 after raising $75 million in Series C financing. The investment round, which brought its total funding at the time to $217 million, was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from TPG, Insight Venture Partners, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. 

SNAP REPORTEDLY PLANNING EMPLOYEE LAYOFFS

Meditation and mental health wellness app Calm laid off 20% of its workforce, according to a Thursday memo to staff from CEO David Ko.  (Calm)

The layoffs were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. 

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Calm is the latest company to make adjustments in response to the current macroeconomic environment. 

Companies that cut jobs last week include Walmart, Oracle and Robinhood. 

Meanwhile, other major companies that have either laid off employees or slowed or paused hiring include Meta, Twitter, Microsoft, Spotify, Netflix, Victoria's Secret, 7-Eleven, Coinbase and Redfin. 

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