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Fintech CEO and Forbes 30 Under 30 alum has been charged for alleged fraud

By now, the Forbes 30 Under 30 list has become more than a little notorious for the amount of entrants who go on to be charged with fraud. Notable alumni include FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Frank CEO Charlie Javice, Joanna Smith-Griffin, founder of the AI startup AllHere Education, and “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, among others. Now, another member of the list has been hit with federal charges.

Gökçe Güven, a 26-year-old Turkish national and the founder and CEO of fintech startup Kalder, was charged last week with alleged securities fraud, wire fraud, visa fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

The New York-based fintech startup — which uses the “Turn Your Rewards into [a] Revenue Engine” tagline — says it can help companies create and monetize individual rewards programs. The company was founded in 2022, and offers participating firms the opportunity to earn ongoing revenue streams via partner affiliate sales, Axios previously reported.

Güven was featured in last year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list. The magazine notes in the writeup that Güven’s clients included major chocolatier Godiva and the International Air Transport Association, the trade organization that represents a majority of the world’s airlines. Kalder also claims to have enjoyed the backing of a number of prominent VC firms.

The U.S. Department of Justice alleges that, during Kalder’s seed round in April of 2024, Güven managed to raise $7 million from more than a dozen investors after presenting a pitch deck that was rife with false information.

According to the government, Kalder’s pitch deck claimed that there were 26 brands “using Kalder” and another 53 brands in “live freemium.” However, officials say that, in reality, Kalder had, in many cases, only been offering heavily discounted pilot programs to many of those companies. Other brands “had no agreement with Kalder whatsoever—not even for free services,” officials said in a press release announcing the indictment. The pitch deck also “falsely reported that Kalder’s recurring revenue had steadily grown month over month since February 2023 and that by March 2024, Kalder had reached $1.2 million in annual recurring revenue.” 

The government also accuses Güven of having kept two separate sets of financial books. One of those sets included “false and inflated numbers,” and was presented to investors or potential investors to hide the “true financial condition of the company,” the government claims. The DOJ also alleges that Güven used lies about Kalder as well as forged documents to obtain a category of visa reserved for individuals of “extraordinary ability,” that would allow her to live and work in the United States.

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TechCrunch Founder Summit: Tickets Live

On June 23 in Boston, more than 1,100 founders come together at TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 for a full day focused on growth, execution, and real-world scaling. Learn from founders and investors who have shaped the industry. Connect with peers navigating similar growth stages. Walk away with tactics you can apply immediately

Save up to $300 on your pass or save up to 30% with group tickets for teams of four or more.

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TechCrunch reached out to Güven through her personal website. The CEO said that she would be sharing a statement about the charges on Tuesday.

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Mesa shuts down credit card that rewarded cardholders for paying their mortgages

Fintech startup Mesa has shut down its Homeowners Card, which awarded points to cardholders for paying their mortgages.

A message on the Mesa website states that as of December 12, “all Mesa Homeowners Card accounts are closed,” adding, “All credit cards have been deactivated and you are no longer able to make any new purchases or earn Mesa Points.”

A Mesa FAQ about the shutdown described this as “a business decision to close the Mesa Homeowners Card Program entirely.” TechCrunch has reached out to Mesa for additional comment on its future plans.

The startup launched just over a year ago, in November 2024, with $9.2 million in funding ($7.2 million in equity funding and $2 million in debt). It offered two products — mortgage loans with 1% cash back, as well as the credit card with rewards including cash back, travel, and offset mortgage payments.

At the time, CEO Kelley Halpin told TechCrunch that the startup had “taken what everybody loves about travel and dining cards to re-contextualize that for the homeowner/parent.”

In theory, you could earn points for home expenses by using any credit card with rewards, but Mesa said it structured its points program to incentivize spending related to home ownership.

“So it’s not rewarding you on travel and dining spend; it’s rewarding you on gas, groceries, your HOA, utilities, home goods as well as your mortgage payment,” Halpin said.

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Bilt, which has a rewards card that allows customers to earn points on rent payments, says it will expand with points for mortgage payments when it launches a revamped card next year.

Mesa’s card shutdown has been covered by travel deals websites like One Mile at a Time and Upgraded Points, which say that Mesa cardmembers have been complaining about declined transactions for the past week, with the company initially claiming this was only a temporary outage.

Now, it seems the only remaining way to redeem points earned on the Mesa card is through a statement credit at a rate of 0.6%.

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India’s Spinny lines up $160M funding to acquire GoMechanic, sources say

Spinny, an Indian online marketplace for used cars, is raising around $160 million as it moves to acquire car services startup GoMechanic, TechCrunch has learned.

The Series G round, which includes a mix of primary and secondary transactions, would value the 10-year-old startup at about $1.8 billion post-money, three people familiar with the matter said, broadly in line with its previous valuation.

Nearly $90 million of the round is primary, people said; Existing investor Accel has already wired about $44 million of that amount, with some details of the investment appearing in regulatory filings in India this week, which Indian outlet Entrackr first reported. A new investor is participating in the remaining portion of the primary, but TechCrunch could not confirm its specifics.

WestBridge Capital is doubling down in the new round with a check of a similar size to its previous investment, the people said. The firm invested about $35 million to $40 million in Spinny’s Series F round earlier this year.

Much of the secondary portion of the transaction is being sold by Indian VC firm Fundamentum, according to the people, while Blume Ventures is also expected to pare part of its stake.

Accel, Fundamentum, and Blume Ventures did not respond to requests for comments. WestBridge Capital declined to comment.

In March, Spinny raised $131 million in the first part of its Series F round led by Accel, with participation from Fundamentum, before expanding the raise to about $170 million in June to include WestBridge Capital. Those funds were earmarked to scale Spinny’s core used-car business.

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However, the new round is being raised specifically to finance the acquisition of GoMechanic and invest in its platform, without drawing on the startup’s existing cash reserves, the people said. Earlier reports suggested Spinny could buy GoMechanic for around ₹4.5 billion (approximately $49.70 million) in a cash-and-stock deal.

A consortium led by Lifelong Group acquired GoMechanic in 2023 after the startup admitted to “grave errors” in its financial reporting. The startup had previously been backed by high-profile investors, including Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and SoftBank.

For Spinny, acquiring GoMechanic would deepen its control across the used-car value chain. The Gurugram-based startup has built a large consumer-facing business, selling about 13,000 used cars a month, primarily directly to buyers and, to a lesser extent, to dealers through its auction platform. Spinny operates its own large reconditioning centers to refurbish vehicles before sale and relies on third-party service shops for after-sales servicing of customer cars — a gap GoMechanic could bring in-house.

GoMechanic would also act as a “two-way” funnel for Spinny, a person familiar with the matter said. The platform would service vehicles bought or sold through Spinny, and help attract car owners who may not yet be customers. That could help expand Spinny’s vehicle supply without significantly increasing customer acquisition costs.

The acquisition comes as India’s used-car market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 10% to roughly 9.5 million units by 2030, from nearly 6 million units today, per a recent report by Mahindra First Choice and Volkswagen Pre-owned Certified.

The GoMechanic deal would mark Spinny’s latest move to broaden its footprint in India’s automotive market. In recent months, the startup has expanded beyond used-car sales by acquiring auto publications Autocar India, Autocar Professional and What Car? India from London-based media group Haymarket, and by launching a non-banking finance company, Spinny Capital, to offer vehicle loans to customers.

Spinny co-founder and CEO Niraj Singh declined to comment.

Ref link: India’s Spinny lines up $160M funding to acquire GoMechanic, sources say

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A comprehensive list of 2025 tech layoffs

The tech layoff wave is still kicking in 2025. Last year saw more than 150,000 job cuts across 549 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. So far this year, more than 22,000 workers have been the victim of reductions across the tech industry, with a staggering 16,084 cuts taking place in February alone.

We’re tracking layoffs in the tech industry in 2025 so you can see the trajectory of the cutbacks and understand the impact on innovation across all types of companies. As businesses continue to embrace AI and automation, this tracker serves as a reminder of the human impact of layoffs — and what could be at stake with increased innovation.

Below you’ll find a comprehensive list of all the known tech layoffs that have occurred in 2025, which will be updated regularly. If you have a tip on a layoff, contact us here. If you prefer to remain anonymous, you can contact us here.

December

Payoneer

Will let go of about 30 employees in Israel and a similar number of staff overseas, bringing the total reduction to roughly 6% of its global workforce.

VSCO

Laid off 24 employees as part of a restructuring to refocus on tools for professional photographers. In an internal memo seen by TechCrunch, CEO Eric Wittman said that consumer demand fell short and recent expansion efforts didn’t deliver as hoped.

Mobileye

Is reportedly cutting 200 employees, about 4% of its global workforce. With over 3,000 of its 4,300 employees based in Israel, most of the cuts will affect its local teams.

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Inside Inbound Health

Shut down on December 1, according to an audio recording obtained by Axios Pro. The hospital-at-home startup had raised more than $50 million.

November

Intel

The company continued with its stated goal of cutting a significant amount of its workforce this year, with 59 Bay Area jobs eliminated effective November 30, in a Employment Development Department filing caught by KRON4.

HP

Is reportedly set to cut 4,000 to 6,000 jobs worldwide by 2028 as it looks to streamline operations and leverage AI to speed up product development and boost efficiency.

Apple

Is cutting several sales positions handling accounts ranging from business and schools to government agencies, as it moves to streamline how it sells devices and services to businesses, schools, and government agencies, Bloomberg reports.

Monarch Tractor

Told employees it may lay off more than 100 workers or even shut down, according to an internal memo obtained by TechCrunch. This comes after weeks of staff cuts across the autonomous electric tractor startup’s California offices and its teams in India and Singapore.

Playtika

Announced plans to lay off about 20% of its workforce, 700 to 800 employees, next month, marking its fifth round of cuts since 2022, according to Calcalist. The Nasdaq-listed gaming company, valued at $1.5 billion, employs about 3,500 people.

Pipe

Has laid off about 200 employees, roughly half its workforce, per Fintech Business Weekly. The revenue-based small business lender, once valued at $2 billion, said the cuts are part of its push toward profitability and greater operational efficiency.

Synopsys

Plans to cut roughly 10% of its workforce and close several sites as part of a restructuring tied to its recent acquisition of Ansys, The Wall Street Journal reported. The layoffs, which are expected to affect about 2,000 employees, are scheduled to take place during fiscal 2026, which began November 1.

Deepwatch

Has laid off between 60 and 80 employees, citing artificial intelligence as one of the factors behind the decision, TechCrunch reported. The cybersecurity firm, which builds an AI-powered threat detection and response platform, employs roughly 250 people.

Axonius

Is reportedly cutting roughly 10% of its staff, notifying employees in early November that about 100 of its 900 workers will be laid off. The New York–based cybersecurity firm says the move aims to streamline operations.

MyBambu

Is set to permanently close its local operations, laying off all 141 employees in two waves, according to a filing with the Florida Department of Commerce. The Florida-headquartered fintech company’s first 100 employees were let go on October 31, with the remaining 41 slated for termination by December 31.

Hewlett-Packard

Is removing 52 positions at its San Jose campus, according to reporting from the San Francisco Chronicle. The layoffs, which began last month and will continue through November, affect employees across cloud development, engineering, and product management.

October

Amazon

After Reuters reported that the company was planning to eliminate up to 30,000 corporate jobs, amounting to roughly 10% of its 350,000 employees in their corporate departments, Amazon shared that it would pursue an “overall reduction in our corporate workforce of approximately 14,000 roles.” Since that news broke, Amazon has laid off 660 employees across multiple New York City offices, with more to come through the year.

Rivian

Is cutting 600 jobs, about 4% of its workforce, amid an EV market pullback, marking its third layoff this year. Details of the latest layoffs remain undisclosed, while earlier cuts in June and September affected 100 to 150 employees in its commercial and manufacturing teams.

Meta

Has laid off approximately 600 employees across its AI infrastructure units, including the Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team and other product-related roles. However, top-tier AI hires in TBD Labs, managed by new chief AI officer Alexandr Wang, will not be affected.

Applied Materials

Plans to cut about 4% of its workforce, or roughly 1,400 jobs, to streamline operations amid tighter U.S. semiconductor export controls.

Handshake

Laid off around 100 employees in October, about 15% of its 650-person U.S. workforce. The layoffs affected various roles across its recruiting business vertical. The San Francisco-based startup is an online platform connecting college students and recent graduates with employers for early-career jobs.

Smartsheet

Has reportedly laid off over 120 employees amid a leadership transition following CEO Mark Mader’s retirement. The enterprise software company, which grew to more than 3,300 employees, was acquired for $8.4 billion by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners earlier this year, taking it private.

Google

Has cut over 100 design roles in its cloud division, hitting U.S.-based teams especially hard, as the company shifts focus toward AI investments, per a CNBC report. Many affected employees have until early December to find a new role within Google, following additional layoffs across its Silicon Valley offices, including at least 50 permanent cuts in Sunnyvale.

Paycom

Is reportedly laying off over 500 employees due to AI and automation improving back-office efficiencies. The Oklahoma City-based HR and payroll software company will provide affected workers with severance packages, outplacement services, and access to internal job opportunities.

September

Just Eat

Will eliminate around 450 jobs as part of a cost and operations review, according to Reuters. The layoffs will span multiple functions and countries, including customer service and sales. Europe’s largest food delivery company said it is increasingly using automation and AI, shifting many manual service tasks to automated systems.

Fiverr

Plans to cut around 250 jobs, approximately 30% of its workforce, as part of a push to become a leaner, faster, and AI-focused company, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Tel Aviv-headquartered freelance services marketplace said the restructuring will reduce management layers and position it to pursue growth with an AI-native approach.

ZipRecruiter

Is closing its Tel Aviv development center, cutting about 80 jobs. Led by Yosi Taguri, the office specialized in software, data, and AI research, including algorithm development. The California-based recruitment firm, founded in 2010, is trimming costs amid a challenging labor market.

GupShup

Has laid off at least 100 employees, including junior developers, just months after cutting nearly 200 jobs. The San Francisco-based conversational AI company, which is preparing for an IPO within two years, raised $60 million in equity and debt in July.

xAI

Laid off about a third of its data annotation team, cutting roughly 500 jobs, according to Business Insider. The move comes as the company shifts focus from generalist AI tutors to specialist roles, after testing workers to assess their strengths. Employees were told they’ll be paid through the end of their contracts — or November 30 at the latest — but their system access was cut immediately, Business Insider reports.

Rivian

Has reportedly laid off about 200 workers, or 1.5% of its staff, as the company braces for the end of federal EV tax credits under President Trump’s policy changes. The $7,500 incentive for new electric cars expires this month, adding to pressure from cooling demand. Despite the cuts, Rivian says it’s moving ahead with plans for a lower-cost model.

Oracle

Is cutting another 101 jobs in Seattle and 254 in San Francisco, just weeks after a wave of layoffs in August. The company, which had about 3,900 local employees before the cuts, hasn’t explained the move and declined to comment.

Salesforce

Is trimming another 262 jobs at its San Francisco headquarters, according to a state filing, with layoffs set to take effect November 3. The move comes just weeks after CEO Marc Benioff touted AI’s potential to cut customer support roles and follows a smaller round of cuts in Seattle and Bellevue earlier this month.

August

Cisco

Will eliminate 221 positions across its Milpitas and San Francisco offices, including 157 in Santa Clara County and 64 in San Francisco, effective October 13, according to filings with California’s Employment Development Department reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. The cuts are part of the company’s broader workforce-reduction strategy.

Restaurant365

Laid off about 100 employees last month, around 9% of its workforce, after falling short of ambitious growth targets. The cuts affected staff across all departments. The company provides back-office software for restaurant chains.

Oracle

Is set to cut 101 jobs at its Santa Clara location, with notices issued on August 13 and terminations effective October 13. The company, which recently disclosed nearly 200 layoffs at its Pleasanton and Redwood City offices, is also planning to lay off 161 employees in Seattle, according to filings with the Washington state Employment Security Department.

F5

Is cutting 106 positions at its Seattle and Liberty Lake, Washington, offices, according to a state Employment Security Department filing. The layoffs, which affected senior engineers and managers, are part of a broader global workforce reduction, although the security and application delivery company has not disclosed the total number of employees affected.

Peloton

Will cut 6% of its workforce in its sixth layoff in just over a year. Peloton CEO Peter Stern said the cuts are needed to improve long-term business health.

Kaltura

Is cutting 10% of its workforce, or about 70 employees, as part of a cost-saving effort to reduce operating expenses by $8.5 million, marking its third round of layoffs since 2022. The corporate video software company plans to maintain and gradually grow its sales and marketing budgets, driven by a robust pipeline and growing adoption of its AI-powered offerings.

Yotpo

Is laying off about 200 employees, roughly 34% of its global workforce, as it shuts down its email and SMS marketing operations. The Israeli-founded unicorn is partnering with Attentive and Omnisend to continue supporting marketing services while investing in AI-powered tools like automated review summaries, smart sorting, and a new Loyalty Tiers system.

Windsurf

Laid off 30 employees and is now offering buyouts to the remaining 200. The AI coding startup recently acquired by Cognition has had a rocky stretch, including a near-acquisition by OpenAI and a reverse-acqui-hire by Google that saw key talent depart before Cognition stepped in. Despite initial promises to value Windsurf’s team, the deal now looks more focused on the startup’s intellectual property than its people.

Wondery

Is cutting 100 jobs, and its CEO, Jen Sargent, is departing. Amazon is reorganizing its audio operations, moving Wondery’s audio-only podcasts under Audible and placing video-focused shows into a new Creator Services division. Amazon acquired Wondery in 2020.

July

Atlassian

Has cut 150 roles in customer service and support, following enhancements to its platform and tools that have significantly reduced support needs. The decision came via a prerecorded message from CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes, just hours before co-founder Scott Farquhar urged Australia to embrace an “AI revolution” and move beyond “jobs of the past” in an Australian Press Club address. The Australian software firm was founded 2002.

Consensys

Is cutting about 7% of its workforce, or 47 employees, as part of a push toward profitability, Bloomberg reports. The decision follows the recent acquisition of a startup with around 30 staff, who will stay on with the company. Despite the cuts, the blockchain software company that operates the popular digital wallet MetaMask says it will continue hiring for select roles.

Zeen

Is shutting down operations, per a report by Business Insider. The social collaging platform aimed at creators was founded in 2019 and raised $9 million in funding. Its closure highlights the persistent challenges social media startups face in building user bases and achieving long-term growth.

Scale AI

Is laying off around 200 employees — roughly 14% of its workforce — and severing ties with 500 global contractors. The cuts come just weeks after Meta brought in the data-labeling startup’s CEO in a $14.3 billion deal.

Lenovo

Plans to cut more than 100 U.S. full-time jobs, about 3% of its workforce, including positions at its Morrisville, North Carolina, campus. As of February 2024, the PC maker employed around 5,100 workers in the U.S.

Intel

Is reportedly planning to lay off nearly 2,400 workers in Oregon, which is almost five times more than what was announced earlier this week. Last week, Intel announced that it will lay off more than 500 employees in Oregon, which is about 20% of its workforce, per Bloomberg.  

Indeed + Glassdoor

Plan to eliminate approximately 1,300 jobs combined as part of a larger restructuring effort to combine their operations and focus on AI. The layoff will mostly affect employees in the U.S., particularly in the R&D, HR, and sustainability teams, according to an internal memo by Hisayuki “Deko” Idekoba, the CEO of Recruit Holdings, which is the Japanese parent company of Indeed and Glassdoor.

Eigen Lab

Has laid off 29 employees as part of its reorganization, per a report by Blockworks. The Seattle-based research and engineering startup recently launched EigenCloud, a platform that provides blockchain-level trust guarantees for any Web 2.0 or web3 application. The reduction will affect 25% of the company’s workforce. Eigen Labs said it had raised $70 million in tokens from a16z Crypto in June.

Microsoft

Will cut 9,000 employees, which is less than 4% of its global workforce across teams, role types, and geographies. The reduction follows a series of layoffs earlier this year: It cut less than 1% of the headcount in January, more than 6,000 in May, and at least 300 in June.

ByteDance

Is laying off 65 employees in Bellevue, Washington, according to media reports. The parent company of TikTok arrived in Seattle in 2021 and has been expanding its presence there by growing its TikTok Shop online shopping division.

June

TomTom

Announced on June 30 that the company is cutting 300 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, as part of organizational restructuring within its sales and support divisions amid the AI shift. The startup is an Amsterdam-based location tech startup that provides navigation and mapping products.

Rivian

Has reduced its headcount by approximately 140 employees, accounting for roughly 1% of its total workforce. The recent layoffs mostly affected Rivian’s manufacturing team.

Bumble

Announced in an SEC filing that it will cut approximately 240 jobs, or 30% of its workforce, to enhance operational efficiency and allocate the resulting savings to the development of new products and technologies, according to a CNBC report. The layoff will help the online dating app save $40 million annually, per the report.

Klue

Has reportedly laid off 85 employees, which accounts for approximately 40% of its workforce. The Vancouver-based startup sells software products that use artificial intelligence for business intelligence. It helps sales professionals at tech companies gather information on competitors to improve their sales.

Google

Has downsized its smart TV division by 25% of its 300-member team to adjust its strategy, per reports. Funding for the smart TV division, including Google TV and Android TV, has been cut by 10%, but investment in AI projects has been raised.

Intel

Says that it plans to lay off 15% to 20% of workers in its Intel Foundry division starting in July. Intel Foundry designs, manufactures, and packages semiconductors for external clients. Intel’s total workforce was 108,900 people as of December 2024, according to the company’s annual regulatory filing. It also confirmed to TechCrunch that it plans to wind down its auto business.

Playtika

Announced that it is letting go of around 90 employees, with 40 in Israel and 50 in Poland. The most recent round of job cuts comes after the Israel-based gaming company laid off 50 employees a few weeks ago.

Airtime

Has let go of around 25 employees from the 58-person team, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. Evernote’s founder Phil Libin launched the video startup in 2020, offering Airtime Creator and Airtime Camera.

Microsoft

Is laying off more employees, just a few weeks after announcing a job cut of over 6,500 in May, which was around 3% of its global workforce. The most recent layoffs affected software engineers, product managers, technical program managers, marketers, and legal counsels.

May

Hims & Hers

Plans to downsize its workforce by letting go of 68 employees, approximately 4% of its total staff, per Reuters. The San Francisco telehealth platform said that its layoffs were unrelated to a U.S. ban on producing large quantities of the weight-loss drug Wegovy. The startup said it intends to keep on recruiting employees who fit in with its long-term expansion plans.

Amazon

Is reportedly laying off around 100 employees from its devices and services division, which encompasses various businesses like the Alexa voice assistant, Echo smart speakers, Ring video doorbells, and Zoox robotaxis. The company has reduced its workforce by approximately 27,000 since the start of 2022 to cut costs.

Microsoft

Will cut over 6,500 jobs, affecting 3% of its worldwide workforce. As of June, the Seattle-headquartered company had a total of 228,000 employees globally. It would be one of the company’s biggest layoffs since it cut 10,000 employees in 2023.

Chegg

Reportedly plans to let go of 248 employees, or about 22% of its workforce, to reduce expenses and improve efficiency, it said. The San Francisco-based edtech startup, which offers textbook rentals and tutoring services, has seen a drop in web traffic for months as students opt for AI tools instead of traditional edtech platforms.

Match

Is reducing its workforce by 13% as part of a reorganization that aims to reduce costs, shore up margins, and streamline its organizational structure.

CrowdStrike

Is laying off 5% of its global workforce, or around 500 people. The company said the layoffs were part of “a strategic plan (the ‘Plan’) to evolve its operations to yield greater efficiencies as the Company continues to scale its business with focus and discipline to meet its goal of $10 billion in ending [Annual Recurring Revenue]” in its 8-K filing.

General Fusion

Has cut roughly 25% of its current workforce. The Vancouver-based company, which is developing a technology to generate fusion energy, has raised $440 million from investors, including Jeff Bezos, Temasek, and BDC Capital.

Deep Instinct

Reduced its headcount by 20 employees, accounting for 10% of its total workforce. In April 2023, the Israeli cybersecurity startup had previously laid off a similar number of employees during a round of layoffs.

Beam

Has shut down its operations months after announcing major expansion plans, per Sifted. The British climate startup has let go of approximately 200 employees, according to a LinkedIn post by James Reynolds, the head of talent.

April

NetApp

Is reportedly eliminating 700 jobs, affecting 6% of its total workforce, as it reorganizes for its operational efficiency. The company, based in San Francisco, provides data storage, cloud services, and CloudOps solutions for businesses.

Electronic Arts

Is reportedly letting go of approximately 300 to 400 employees, including around 100 at Respawn Entertainment, to focus on its “long-term strategic priorities,” according to Bloomberg.

Expedia

Is laying off around 3% of its employees as part of its restructuring. The job cuts will mainly affect midlevel positions in the product and technology teams. The latest round of layoffs comes after the company let go of hundreds of employees from its marketing team globally in early March.

Cars24

Has reduced its workforce by about 200 employees in its product and technology divisions as part of a restructuring measure. The India-based e-commerce platform for pre-owned vehicles provides a range of services like buying and selling pre-owned cars, financing, insurance, driver-on-demand, and more. In 2023, the SoftBank-backed startup raised $450 million at a valuation of $3.3 billion.

Meta

Is letting go of over 100 employees in its Reality Labs division, which manages virtual reality and wearable technology, according to The Verge. The job cuts affect employees developing VR experiences for Meta’s Quest headsets and staff working on hardware operations to streamline similar work between the two teams.

Intel

Announced its plan to lay off more than 21,000 employees, or roughly 20% of its workforce, in April. The move comes ahead of Intel’s Q1 earnings call helmed by recently appointed CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took over from longtime chief Pat Gelsinger last year.

GM

Is laying off 200 people at its Factory Zero in Detroit and Hamtramck facility in Michigan, which produces GM’s electric vehicles. The cuts come amid the EV slowdown and is not caused by tariffs, according to a report.

Zopper

Has reportedly let go of around 100 employees since the start of 2025. Earlier this week, about 50 employees from the tech and product teams were let go in the latest round of job cuts. The India-based insurtech startup has raised a total of $125 million to date.

Turo

Will reduce its workforce by 150 positions following its decision not to proceed with its IPO, per Bloomberg. The San Francisco-based car rental startup, which had about 1,000 staff in 2024, said the layoffs will bolster its long-term growth plans during economic uncertainty.

GupShup

Laid off roughly 200 employees to improve efficiency and profitability. It’s the startup’s second round of layoffs in five months, following the job cuts of around 300 employees in December. The conversational AI company, backed by Tiger Global and Fidelity, was last valued at $1.4 billion in 2021. The startup is based in San Francisco and operates in India.

Forto

Has reportedly eliminated 200 jobs, affecting around one-third of its employees. The German logistics startup reduced a significant number of sales staff.

Wicresoft

Will stop its operations in China, affecting around 2,000 employees. The move came after Microsoft decided to end outsourcing after-sales support to Wicresoft amid increasing trade tensions. Wicresoft, Microsoft’s first joint venture in China, was founded in 2022 and operates in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. It has over 10,000 employees.

Five9

Plans to cut 123 jobs, affecting about 4% of its workforce, according to a report by MarketWatch. The software company prioritizes key strategic areas like artificial intelligence for profitable growth.

Google

Has laid off hundreds of employees in its platforms and devices division, which covers Android, Pixel phones, the Chrome browser, and more, according to The Information.

Microsoft

Is contemplating additional layoffs that could happen by May, Business Insider reported, citing anonymous sources. The company is said to be discussing reducing the number of middle managers and non-coders in a bid to increase the ratio of programmers to product managers.

Automattic

The WordPress.com developer is laying off 16% of its workforce across departments. Before the layoffs, the company’s website showed it had 1,744 employees, so more than 270 staff may have been laid off.

Canva

Has let go of 10 to 12 technical writers approximately nine months after telling its employees to use generative AI tools wherever possible. The company, which had around 5,500 staff in 2024, was valued at $26 billion after a secondary stock sale in 2024.

March

Northvolt

Has laid off 2,800 employees, affecting 62% of its total staff. The layoffs come weeks after the embattled Swedish battery maker filed for bankruptcy.

Block

Let go of 931 employees, around 8% of its workforce, as part of a reorganization, according to an internal email seen by TechCrunch. Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and CEO of the fintech company, wrote in the email that the layoffs were not for financial reasons or to replace workers with AI.

Brightcove

Has laid off 198 employees, who make up about two-thirds of its U.S. workforce, per a media report. The layoff comes a month after the company was acquired by Bending Spoons, an Italian app developer, for $233 million. Brightcove had 600 employees worldwide, with 300 in the U.S., as of December 2023.

Acxiom

Has reportedly laid off 130 employees, or 3.5% of its total workforce of 3,700 people. Acxiom is owned by IPG, and the news comes just a day after IPG and Omnicom Group shareholders approved the companies’ potential merger.

Sequoia Capital

Plans to close its office in Washington, D.C., and let go of its policy team there by the end of March, TechCrunch has confirmed. Sequoia opened its Washington office five years ago to deepen its relationship with policymakers. Three full-time employees are expected to be affected, per Forbes.

Siemens

Announced plans to let go of approximately 5,600 jobs globally in its automation and electric-vehicle charging businesses as part of efforts to improve competitiveness.

HelloFresh

Is reportedly laying off 273 employees, closing its distribution center in Grand Prairie, Texas, and consolidating to another site in Irving to manage the volume in the region.

Otorio

Has cut 45 employees, more than half of its workforce, after being acquired by cybersecurity company Armis for $120 million in March.

ActiveFence

Will reportedly reduce 22 employees, representing 7% of its workforce. Most of those affected are based in Israel as the company undergoes a streamlining process. The New York- and Tel Aviv-headquartered cybersecurity firm has raised $100 million at a valuation of about $500 million in 2021.

D-ID

Will cut 22 jobs, affecting nearly a quarter of its total workforce, following the announcement of the AI startup’s strategic partnership with Microsoft.

NASA

Announced it will be shutting down several of its offices in accordance with Elon Musk’s DOGE, including its Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy and the DEI branch in the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity.

Zonar Systems

Has reportedly laid off some staff, according to LinkedIn posts from ex-employees. The company has not confirmed the layoffs, and it is currently unknown how many workers were affected.

Wayfair

Announced plans to let go of 340 employees in its technology division as part of a new restructuring effort.

HPE

Will cut 2,500 employees, or 5% of its total staff, in response to its shares sliding 19% in the first fiscal quarter.

TikTok

Will cut up to 300 workers in Dublin, accounting for roughly 10% of the company’s workforce in Ireland. 

LiveRamp

Announced it will lay off 65 employees, affecting 5% of its total workforce.

Ola Electric

Is reportedly set to lay off over 1,000 employees and contractors in a cost-cutting effort. It’s the second round of cuts for the company in just five months.

Rec Room

Reduced its total headcount by 16% as the gaming startup shifts its focus to be “scrappier” and “more efficient.”

ANS Commerce

Was shut down just three years after it was acquired by Flipkart. It is currently unknown how many employees were affected.

February

HP

Will cut up to 2,000 jobs as part of its “Future Now” restructuring plan that hopes to save the company $300 million before the end of its fiscal year.

GrubHub

Announced 500 job cuts after it was sold to Wonder Group for $650 million. The number of cuts affected more than 20% of its previous workforce. 

Autodesk

Announced plans to lay off 1,350 employees, affecting 9% of its total workforce, in an attempt to reshape its GTM model. The company is also making reductions in its facilities, though it does not plan to close any offices.

Google

Is planning to cut employees in its People Operations and cloud organizations teams in a new reorganization effort. The company is offering a voluntary exit program to U.S.-based People Operations employees.

Nautilus

Reduced its headcount by 25 employees, accounting for 16% of its total workforce. The company is planning to release a commercial version of its proteome analysis platform in 2026.

eBay

Will reportedly cut a few dozen employees in Israel, potentially affecting 10% of its 250-person workforce in the country.

Starbucks

Cut 1,100 jobs in a reorganizing effort that affected its tech workers. The coffee chain will now outsource some tech work to third-party employees.

Commercetools

Laid off dozens of employees over the last few weeks, including around 10% of staff in one day, after failing to meet its sales growth targets. The “headless commerce” platform raised money at a $1.9 billion valuation just a few years ago.

Dayforce

Will cut roughly 5% of its current workforce in a new efficiency drive to increase profitability and growth.

Expedia

Laid off more employees in a new effort to cut costs, though the total number is unknown. Last year, the travel giant cut about 1,500 roles in its Product & Technology division.

Skybox Security

Has ceased operations and has laid off its employees after selling its business and technology to Israeli cybersecurity company Tufin. The cuts affect roughly 300 people. 

HerMD

Is shutting down its operations after shifting from a brick-and-mortar model to a fully virtual women’s healthcare provider. The startup, which raised $18 million in 2023, has not disclosed how many employees are affected, saying recent layoffs were tied to its former in-person business.

Zendesk

Cut 51 jobs in its San Francisco headquarters, according to state filings with the Employment Development Department. The SaaS startup previously reduced its headcount by 8% in 2023.

Vendease

Has cut 120 employees, affecting 44% of its total staff. It’s the Y Combinator-backed Nigerian startup’s second layoff round in just five months.

Logically

Reportedly laid off dozens of employees as part of a new cost-cutting effort that aims to ensure “long-term success” in the startup’s mission to curb misinformation online.

Blue Origin

Will lay off about 10% of its workforce, affecting more than 1,000 employees. According to an email to staff obtained by CNN, the cuts will largely have an impact on positions in engineering and program management. 

Redfin

Announced in an SEC filing that it will cut around 450 positions between February and July 2025, with a complete restructuring set to be completed in the fall, following its new partnership with Zillow.

Sophos

Is laying off 6% of its total workforce, the cybersecurity firm confirmed to TechCrunch. The cuts come less than two weeks after Sophos acquired Secureworks for $859 million.

Zepz

Will cut nearly 200 employees as it introduces redundancy measures and closes down its operations in Poland and Kenya.

Unity

Reportedly conducted another round of layoffs. It’s unknown how many employees were affected.

JustWorks

Cut nearly 200 employees, CEO Mike Seckler announced in a note to employees, citing “potential adverse events” like a recession or rising interest rates.

Bird

Cut 120 jobs, affecting roughly one-third of its total workforce, TechCrunch exclusively learned. The move comes just a year after the Dutch startup cut 90 employees following its rebrand.

Sprinklr

Laid off about 500 employees, affecting 15% of its workforce, citing poor business performance. The new cuts follow two earlier layoff rounds for the company that affected roughly 200 employees.

Sonos

Reportedly let go of approximately 200 employees, according to The Verge. The company previously cut 100 employees as part of a layoff round in August 2024. 

Workday

Laid off 1,750 employees, as originally reported by Bloomberg and confirmed independently by TechCrunch. The cuts affect roughly 8.5% of the enterprise HR platform’s total headcount.

Okta

Laid off 180 employees, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The cuts come just over one year after the access and identity management giant let go of 400 workers.

Cruise

Is laying off 50% of its workforce, including CEO Marc Whitten and several other top executives, as it prepares to shut down operations. What remains of the autonomous vehicle company will move under General Motors.

Salesforce

Is reportedly eliminating more than 1,000 jobs. The cuts come as the giant is actively recruiting and hiring workers to sell new AI products.

January

Cushion

Has shut down operations, CEO Paul Kesserwani announced on LinkedIn. The fintech startup’s post-money valuation in 2022 was $82.4 million, according to PitchBook.

Placer.ai

Laid off 150 employees based in the U.S., affecting roughly 18% of its total workforce, in an effort to reach profitability.

Amazon

Laid off dozens of workers in its communications department in order to help the company “move faster, increase ownership, strengthen our culture, and bring teams closer to customers.”

Stripe

Is laying off 300 people, according to a leaked memo reported by Business Insider. However, according to the memo, the fintech giant is planning to grow its total headcount by 17%. 

Textio

Laid off 15 employees as the augmented writing startup undergoes a restructuring effort.

Pocket FM

Is cutting 75 employees in an effort to “ensure the long-term sustainability and success” of the company. The audio company last cut 200 writers in July 2024 months after partnering with ElevenLabs.

Aurora Solar

Is planning to cut 58 employees in response to an “ongoing macroeconomic challenges and continued uncertainty in the solar industry.”

Meta

Announced in an internal memo that it will cut 5% of its staff targeting “low performers” as the company prepares for “an intense year.” As of its latest quarterly report, Meta currently has more than 72,000 employees.

Wayfair

Will cut up to 730 jobs, affecting 3% of its total workforce, as it plans to exit operations in Germany and focus on physical retailers.

Pandion

Is shutting down its operations, affecting 63 employees. The delivery startup said employees will be paid through January 15 without severance.

Icon

Is laying off 114 employees as part of a team realignment, per a new WARN notice filing, focusing its efforts on a robotic printing system.

Altruist

Eliminated 37 jobs, affecting roughly 10% of its total workforce, even as the company pursues “aggressive” hiring.

Aqua Security

Is cutting dozens of employees across its global markets as part of a strategic reorganization to increase profitability.

SolarEdge Technologies

Plans to lay off 400 employees globally. It’s the company’s fourth layoff round since January 2024 as the solar industry as a whole faces a downturn.

Level

The fintech startup, founded in 2018, abruptly shut down earlier this year. Per an email from CEO Paul Aaron, the closure follows an unsuccessful attempt to find a buyer, though Employer.com has a new offer under consideration to acquire the company post-shutdown.

This list updates regularly.

On April 24, 2025, we corrected the number of layoffs that happened in March.

Ref link: A comprehensive list of 2025 tech layoffs

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1X struck a deal to send its ‘home’ humanoids to factories and warehouses

Robotics company 1X found some big potential buyers for its humanoid robots designed for consumers — the portfolio companies of one of its investors.

The company announced a strategic partnership to make thousands of its humanoid robots available for EQT’s portfolio companies on Thursday. EQT is a large Swedish multi-asset investor, and its venture fund EQT Ventures, is one of 1X’s backers.

This deal involves shipping up to 10,000 1X Neo humanoid robots between 2026 and 2030 to EQT’s more than 300 portfolio companies with a concentration on manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, and other industrial use cases.

1X will sign individual deals with each of EQT’s interested portfolio companies, 1X confirmed to TechCrunch.

This partnership is particularly interesting because 1X’s Neo has been marketed as a humanoid for personal use and tagged as the “first consumer-ready humanoid robot designed to transform life at home.” Unlike some of 1X’s peers, like Figure, it has not been marketed as a bot for commercial purposes.

1X does have a robot designed for industrial purposes, Eve Industrial, but this deal specifically involves the Neo humanoid.

When the company opened up preorders for the $20,000 robot in October, the announcement was focused on how the robot would operate in someone’s home from descriptions of the different chores that the robot is able to perform and how it interacts with people.

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This deal is quite a different use case.

That’s likely because humanoids for the home will remain a hard sell for quite some time while industrial use cases are an easier sell. The $20,000 price tag automatically limits the potential pool of consumer customers too.

The Neo specifically also comes with a privacy element that would be hard to swallow for many people — human operators from 1X are able to look through the robots eyes into someone’s home.

Humanoids also come with potential safety issues around pets and small children due to their size and instability. Multiple VCs and scientists in the robotics field told TechCrunch this summer that humanoid adoption wouldn’t be for multiple years, if not a decade away.

The company declined to share how many preorders it received for its Neo bot but a spokesperson said preorders “far exceeded” the company’s goal.

Founded in 2014, 1x has since raised more than $130 million in venture capital from firms, including EQT Ventures, Tiger Global, and the OpenAI Startup Fund, among others.

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The market has ‘switched’ and founders have the power now, VCs say

The way venture capitalists think about fundraising can be a black box. But investors must think about their go-to-market strategy for raising their own funds, just as much as they think about how their portfolio companies find their market fit.  

All season on Build Mode, we’ve explored how founders should approach marketing, but this week we’re exploring how VCs sell themselves to founders as trustworthy partners and to LPs as worthwhile investments.  

Isabelle Johannessen spoke with Graham & Walker’s Leslie Feinzaig and XYZ Venture’s Ross Fubini about raising their first funds and how that experience has given them empathy for the founder fundraising experience.  

Feinzaig came into venture capital with very few industry connections. “It was hundreds of pitches. It was raised almost entirely from individuals. We ended up with 105 LPs,” she said. “If you don’t have a track record, then what they’re investing in is you. Like it is basically, like, raising a gigantic angel round with no lead.” 

With that outsider perspective, she’s been able to position herself as the call founders make before they meet with their board to practice and discuss strategy. 

Similarly, Fubini encourages the leadership teams he works with to carefully consider who they are entering into partnership with. His rubric follows three core tenets: person, firm, terms.

“You work with this person for forever. So it’s everything from like, are they fun? Do you trust them? Do they have the juice to get the deal done? It’s everything around this human,” he said. 

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Both VCs noted the change from the most recent 2022-23 bear market — where VCs held all the cards — to the current eager dealmaking atmosphere where founders have a bit more power. This makes choosing the right VCs that much more important, they say.

Fubini called this shift “thrilling” because, even though both sides still need to do their diligence and ensure they are good fit together, “you can move so quickly” compared to cautious bear markets. “I think that’s fun and joyful,” he said. 

Both Feinzaig and Fubini are full of tactical advice for both VCs seeking creative ways to capture founder attention and founders seeking smartest choices for their cap tables.

The pitch deck and cold emails may not have the power they once did but creating authentic relationships and proving on execution remains the best strategies to attract the kind of people you want to work with — from both perspectives.  

New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday. Subscribe to the podcast or watch on YouTube. Isabelle Johannessen is our host. Build Mode is produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience Development is led by Morgan Little. And a special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams. 

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On Me raises $6M to shake up the gift card industry

On Me, a digital gift card startup founded by former Google employees, is aiming to redefine the gift card industry with its mobile-first gifting platform that lets users purchase digital gift cards categorized by interests rather than being restricted to specific retailers.

The company on Thursday said it had raised $6 million in a seed funding round, which it will use to expand its gift categories to include things like horseback riding lessons, wine tastings, and theme park trips.

Image Credits:On Me

On Me touts its flexibility. So if you have a friend who is passionate about tennis, you can send them a digital card that lets them shop for outfits and gear from popular brands like Wilson, On, Prince, and more.

The platform offers gift cards across 72 categories that range from running and reading to camping, gardening, gaming, and concerts.

You can also attach video messages, photos, and GIFs to gift cards, which is a nice touch as it lets you add a layer of personalization. You can use On Me via its website as well as iOS and Android apps.

Image Credits:On Me

The startup’s CEO and co-founder Darragh Meaney pointed out the environmental issues with the traditional gift card industry, which rely heavily on plastic. 

The International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA) reports that approximately 30 billion plastic cards are manufactured globally each year, and that over 70% of gift cards are discarded within six months, resulting in an estimated 53 million tons of plastic waste.

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“It is an environmentally wasteful practice that feels totally disconnected from how we live today,” Meaney said.

On Me’s digital cards also integrate with Apple Pay and Google Wallet.

Image Credits:On Me

With the global gift card market projected to reach $2.3 trillion by 2030, On Me believes it is well-positioned for growth. Since its launch, the company says it has facilitated over $2.5 million in gifts for more than 26,000 users, and has grown 50% every month. 

The seed round was led by NFX, with participation from Lerer Hippeau and Focal.

The funding comes a year after the company launched its platform and raised $1.7 million in a pre-seed round. 

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Interest in Spoor’s bird-monitoring AI software is soaring

Spoor launched in 2021 with the goal of using computer vision to help reduce the impact of wind turbines on local bird populations. Now the startup has proven its technology works and is seeing demand from wind farms and beyond.

Oslo, Norway-based Spoor has built software that uses computer vision to track and identify bird populations and migration patterns. The software can detect birds within a 2.5-kilometer radius (about 1.5 miles) and can work with any off-the-shelf high-resolution camera.

Wind farm operators can use this information to better plan where wind farms should be located and to help them better navigate migration patterns. For example, a wind farm could slow down its turbines, or even stop them entirely, during heavy periods of local migration.

Ask Helseth (pictured above left), the co-founder and CEO of Spoor, told TechCrunch last year that he got interested in this space after learning that wind farms lacked effective tracking methods, despite many countries having strict rules around where wind farms can be built and how they can operate due to local bird populations.

“The expectations from the regulators are growing but the industry doesn’t have a great tool,” Helseth said at the time. “A lot of people [go out] in the field with binoculars and trained dogs to find out how many birds are colliding with the turbines.”

Helseth told TechCrunch last week that since then, the company has proven the need for this technology and worked to make it better.

Image Credits:Spoor

At the time of its seed raise in 2024, Spoor was able to track birds in a 1-kilometer range, which has since doubled. As the company has collected more data to feed into its AI model, it has been able to improve its bird identification accuracy to about 96%.

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“Identifying the species of the bird for some of the clients, you add another layer,” Helseth said. “Is it a bird or not a bird? We have an in-house ornithologist to help train the model to train the new types of birds or a new type of species. Having deployment in other countries [means] having rare species in the database.”

Spoor now works across three continents and with more than 20 of the world’s largest energy companies. It has also started to see interest from other industries such as airports and aquaculture farms. Spoor has a partnership with Rio Tinto, a London-based mining giant, to track bats.

The company has also received interest in using its tech to track other objects of similar size — but Helseth said they aren’t thinking of pivoting into those areas quite yet.

“Drones are of course a plastic bird in our mind,” Helseth joked. “They move in a different way and have a different shape and size. Currently we are discarding that data but we are getting interest in it.”

Spoor recently raised an €8 million ($9.3 million) Series A round led by SET Ventures with participation from Ørsted Ventures and Superorganism in addition to strategic investors.

Helseth predicts that interest in this type of technology will only grow as regulators continue to crack down on wind farms. For example, French regulators shut down a wind farm in April due to its impact on the local bird population and imposed hundreds of millions of fines.

“Our mission is to enable industry and nature to coexist,” Helseth said. “We have started on that journey, but we are still a small startup with a lot to prove. In the coming years, we want to really cement our position in the wind industry and become a global leader to tackle these challenges. At the same time, we want to build some proof points that this technology has value beyond that main category.”

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Eclipse Energy’s microbes can turn idle oil wells into hydrogen factories

Up to 3 million abandoned oil and gas wells litter the U.S. alone, and while many still contain oil or natural gas, the owners decided it wasn’t worth it to keep pumping.

“They’ve tried everything,” Prab Sekhon, CEO of Eclipse Energy, told TechCrunch. “There’s still a ton of oil left behind.”

Eclipse doesn’t have a way to recover that oil, but it does have a way to squeeze some of the energy they embody up to the surface. Rather than pump harder or inject something to force oil to the surface, Eclipse sends down microbes to munch on the oil molecules and liberate their hydrogen.

Instead of viscous oil, companies only have to deal with hydrogen gas. “Hydrogen flows a lot easier,” Sekhon said, making it easier to extract it from the well.

The Houston-based startup, which was spun out of Cemvita, demonstrated the technology at an oilfield in California’s San Joaquin Basin last summer. Now, it’s partnering with oilfield services company Weatherford International to deploy the technology around the world, the startup exclusively told TechCrunch. The first projects will begin in January.

“They’re an extension of our team,” Sekhon said to characterize the relationship with Weatherford. “They’ll be our operational arm.”

Eclipse, which was previously known as Gold H2, has been developing the technology over the last several years. It has been sampling microbes that naturally occur in oil wells, which live at the interface between oil and water held in aquifers, to find those that are best suited to the job.

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As the microbes consume the oil, they break it down into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Both then flow to the surface, where Eclipse and its partners will eventually separate the two. About half of the carbon dioxide is likely to stay in the reservoir, while the other half could be captured using specialized equipment and either sequestered or used.

The goal, Sekhon said, is to produce low-carbon hydrogen for around 50 cents per kilogram, or the same price as hydrogen obtained by breaking down natural gas in an industrial plant, a process that releases more carbon dioxide.

The resulting hydrogen could be used in petrochemical plants or burned for energy. 

“It’s taking a liability and turning it into a clean energy asset,” Sekhon said.

Ref link: Eclipse Energy’s microbes can turn idle oil wells into hydrogen factories