Ava Labs, the company behind the Avalanche blockchain, cut its staff by 12%.
Today we parted ways with some of our Ava Labs team members. We are no longer a 12 person startup, but we strive to capture the speed and energy of a small, nimble team.
This reduction in force affected 12% of Ava Labs, and allows us to reallocate resources to double down on the…
— Emin Gün Sirer? (@el33th4xor) November 7, 2023
The decision is intended to reallocate resources to double the growth of the ecosystem.
“This reduction affected 12% of Ava Labs. … Navigating bear markets is difficult,” said the CEO and founder Emin Gün Sirer.
He did not specify which divisions were affected. However, Ava Labs’ vice president of growth and strategy, Harrison Yang said that marketing specialists were laid off.
“These are the people who [built] the Avalanche gaming brand from scratch to the top in less than a year. … These people helped Avalanche navigate numerous industry crises, bear markets, and an abundance of other challenges,” said the senior executive.
By the end of May, the number of active users of the first-level blockchain surpassed 1 million per month.
In June, Ava Labs launched an AI-powered chatbot, AvaGPT, based on OpenAI technology.
Earlier, the hardware-wallet maker Ledger announced a 12% headcount reduction.