Amsterdam-based MessageBird, a cloud communications platform, announced that it is laying off 31 per cent of its workforce citing rising inflation and interest rates and a change in how businesses are valued.
In a blog post, the company’s CEO Robert Vis says, “I’m very sorry to be taking this step, and I take full responsibility for the decisions leading up to it.”
The Dutch company hasn’t shared the exact count of impacted employees.
In a statement, Vis mentions, “We bootstrapped MessageBird profitably for the first six years, spent the next five years investing, and made the company profitable again in late 2021. While we continue to operate profitably in 2022 and sustain our growth rates ahead of our peers, unfortunately, we still need to take more drastic measures for our business’s health and continue to support and prepare our customers and stakeholders for what is about to come.”
Vis also said he takes responsibility for growing the headcount too fast and not integrating its acquisitions at speed needed.
“MessageBird is fundamentally well-positioned to overcome economic headwinds, and our products and tools are purposefully designed to help customers build economies of scale, especially during these tough economic times,” he mentions in the blog post.
The Dutch company says it will pay three months of compensation for all departing employees and more for those with longer tenure.
Vis mentions that MessageBird has surpassed $600M run rate revenue with organic growth and processed 254M emails every hour and 3.3B during Black Friday.
Last year, MessageBird acquired the video platform 24sessions, the Customer Data Platform (CDP) Hull.io, and the predictive email intelligence platform SparkPost. The company also raised $1B in an extended Series C round of funding.
Earlier this year, the Dutch platform acquired the domain name Bird.com, reportedly for $10M (approx €8.7M) through exclusive auction from Monte Cahn of Right of the Dot.
MessageBird: What you need to know
Founded in 2011 by Adriaan Mol and Robert Vis, MessageBird is a cloud communications platform that connects enterprises to their global customers.
The company’s Inbox.ai enables customers to communicate with businesses practically through any channel, including WhatsApp, SMS, Voice, Messenger, Instagram, WeChat, RCS, Line, and Telegram.
The company’s product line also includes a Chat Widget and Flow Builder. The Chat Widget helps convert static pages into dynamic conversations.
On the other hand, the Flow Builder is an RPA (Robotic Process Automation) platform that enables auto-replies and message routing.
The Dutch company claims to have more than 20,000 customers, including Lufthansa Airlines, Heineken, Hugo Boss, Rituals Cosmetics, and SAP, as well as rapidly-growing disruptors such as Uber, HelloFresh, and Deliveroo.
It has offices in Amsterdam, San Francisco, Singapore, Bogota, London, Shanghai, Dublin, Hamburg, and Sydney.
