Ford, Gemini, Innovaccer, and Inmobi lay off employees

American car manufacturer Ford, Us-based crypto exchange Gemini, India’s first unicorn company InMobi lay off employees.

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Gemini

Gemini, a US-based crypto exchange, announced that it will  let go of 10 per cent of its employees. The reason given for the layoffs is the presence of ‘bad actors’ in the crypto industry. In July of 2020, Gemini conducted another round of layoffs, where they let go of 7 per cent that affected around 68 employees in the organisation.

This is the third round of layoffs at Gemini in the past eight months, according to reports from The Information, which cites a message from Gemini President Cameron Winklevoss on Slack.

The company is also currently engaged in a legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over accusations of an unregistered offering and sale of securities in relation to its partnership with Barry Silbert, CEO of Digital Currency Group, Genesis. The partnership resulted in high returns for clients through Gemini’s high-yield lending product, Gemini Earn, however, users’ funds are now locked due to the bankruptcy of its trading arm, Genesis Trading.

According to bankruptcy documents, Genesis listed over 100,000 creditors in a large bankruptcy filing, with total liabilities estimated to be between $1.2 billion and $11 billion, as reported by CNBC.

Along with Gemini, other cryptocurrency-related companies, such as Coinbase, Crypto.com, Kraken, Blockchain.com, and ConsenSys, have also reduced their headcount due to the current downturn in the cryptocurrency market. It is estimated that around 27,000 jobs have been lost in the industry since April 2022.

Ford

The American car manufacturer, Ford Motor, intends to reduce its workforce by up to 3,200 jobs in Europe. According to the IG Metall union, the layoff will impact the employees in Germany, primarily.

The company is planning to relocate some of its product development work to the United States, according to Germany’s IG Metall union. The company is planning to eliminate around 2,500 jobs in product development and up to 700 in administrative positions, with the majority of cuts taking place in Germany.

The union has threatened to take action that would disrupt Ford’s operations across Europe if the job cuts are implemented. Workers at Ford’s Cologne facility, which employs around 14,000 people including 3,800 at a development center in Merkenich, were informed of the plans at a meeting on Monday.

Increasing expenses for electric vehicle battery components and expectations of economic slowdown in the US and Europe have led to automakers looking for ways to reduce their costs. The recent price competition initiated by Tesla has further intensified this pressure, according to analysts.

Ford’s spokesperson in Germany declined to comment and referred to a statement made on Friday, in which the company stated that the shift to electric vehicle production requires structural changes and they would not provide more information until plans were finalized. 

Last year, Ford announced a $2 billion investment to expand production at its Cologne plant to produce an all-electric model for the mass market. The plant currently produces the Ford Fiesta, engines, and transmissions. The carmaker, which employs around 45,000 people in Europe, plans to launch seven new electric models, establish a battery assembly site in Germany, and a nickel cell manufacturing joint venture in Turkey as part of a major push for electric vehicles on the continent. 

Additionally, Ford has a partnership with Volkswagen to produce 1.2 million vehicles on the German carmaker’s MEB electric platform over six years. 

 

InMobi

According to a report by Business Standard, InMobi, India’s first unicorn company, has reportedly laid off 50-70 employees. The company, backed by Softbank, has a total workforce of 2,600 employees. The affected employees are said to be from both InMobi and its content-providing subsidiary, Glance. 

However, InMobi has denied the reports and stated that the layoffs are part of their annual performance evaluation process and that they are actively hiring talent for their future plans.

In 2006, Naveen Tewari, a graduate of IIT Kanpur and Harvard with experience at McKinsey, founded InMobi along with his friends Abhay Singhal and Amit Gupta. The company, originally called mKhoj (short for mobile khoj or mobile search), offered SMS-based search services. Despite raising $500,000 from Mumbai Angels in 2007, the company struggled to gain traction in this area, and decided to pivot and rebrand as InMobi. In 2011, the company achieved ‘unicorn’ status after raising $200 million from SoftBank, led by Masayoshi Son. In 2020, Glance, a subsidiary of InMobi, also reached unicorn status after raising $145 million from Google.

Innovaccer

Innovaccer, a healthtech company, has reportedly laid off 15 per cent of its workforce. According to an internal email sent by the company’s CEO and co-founder, Abhinav Shashank, the decision was made due to the uncertain economic environment and hence, they will be deprioritising certain areas.

In a statement to Inc42, Innovaccer CEO Abhinav Shashank confirmed the layoffs and provided additional context for the decision. He explained that the company is shifting its focus towards its core capabilities and streamlining its organizational structure in order to better serve its customers and improve patient care.

The layoffs affected employees in both India and the US, and were the second round of job cuts in four months. The recent layoff will affect 245 roles in the company.

The company spokesperson also emphasized that Innovaccer is in a strong financial position and will provide support to impacted employees through severance packages, transitional health insurance benefits, and job placement assistance.

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