March 10, 2023
Gopuff laid off 2% of its global workforce on Thursday, impacting more than 100 employees at the Philadelphia-based rapid-delivery startup.
The job cuts impacted workers from the company's operations department, including those working in engineering and information technology, Bloomberg reported. The latest round of layoffs came just a few months after Gopuff terminated approximately 250 workers in October.
Gopuff has laid off hundreds of employees over the last year. Last March, the online delivery company cut 3% of its workforce, according to The Information. In July, about 1,500 warehouse and technology employees were terminated as part of a downsizing measure that included the shuttering of 76 warehouses across the United States, or 12% of the company's national footprint.
That wasn't the only time that Gopuff cut jobs in 2022. That January, Gopuff laid off about 100 warehouse and operations workers and abandoned plans to open several new warehouses ahead of a planned initial public offering later that year, Business Insider reported. The expansion was later scrapped due to "unfavorable market conditions."
The job cuts appear to be part of an effort to control costs and get the company back on track to profitability.
In September, as the company celebrated its 10th anniversary in Philadelphia with the opening of a micro-fulfillment center in Northern Liberties, co-founder Rafael Ilishayev told the Philadelphia Business Journal that the company was taking "bold, big steps – frankly, uncomfortable steps" to return to profitability by 2024.
Gopuff did not immediately respond to PhillyVoice's request for comment regarding the latest round of layoffs.
The company, which was founded by Ilishayev and Yakir Gola while they were students at Drexel University in 2013, has expanded rapidly in recent years by setting up thousands of fulfillment centers across the United States, moving into the European market and acquiring several international companies with a similar business model.
As the company begins to downsize and look for ways to save the dwindling venture capitalist funding that facilitated that expansion, Ilishayev told the Philadelphia Business Journal that it will continue to open up fulfillment centers "where it really makes sense for us to open up buildings in key locations like Philadelphia." The company will also add new items to its inventory and use all of the assets at the company's disposal, he said.
The company was most recently valued at $15 billion in 2021 and had 10,000 employees as of September, the Business Journal reported.
