Tel Aviv-based software company WalkMe (Nasdaq: WKME) has reported layoffs of 112 employees, representing about 10% of its workforce. In a message to the company’s customers and partners, WalkMe CEO and co-founder Dan Adika wrote that the company was determined to build a strong, sustainable business despite macro-economic challenges.
The company has developed a user interface known as a digital adoption platform (DAP) that simplifies the use of complex enterprise software.
"The path to profitability and long-term growth is paved with difficult decisions that we need to make in order to ensure our collective success," Adika wrote. "We took actions this week to create a leaner, more efficient organization that better reflects our near-term growth expectations, while setting us on a path to profitability and long-term growth. We have made the painful decision to reduce our workforce by 112 employees, representing approximately 10% of our organization, in order to meet our current business needs, better equip us for future scale, and deliver the utmost value to our customers.
"I know how incredibly difficult it is for those impacted and also how it affects everyone who remains who have to part with their friends and colleagues.
"We cannot ignore the macroeconomic headwinds facing us and our customers right now. We built an organization based on market assumptions that are now very different from the economic reality we and many others find ourselves in. I take full responsibility for decisions that have now led us to the thoughtful yet difficult actions required to drive success.
"I want to assure you, our long-term strategy is unchanged. DAP is an inevitability. We believe it will become the standard for how enterprises overcome the massive friction created by tech overload," Adika’s letter states
At the end of 2022, WalkMe employed some 1,200 people. Earlier this year, it laid off 43 employees, most of the outside of Israel.
It was floated on Nasdaq at a valuation of $2.6 billion in 2021, but, like many companies floated in that wave of IPOs, it has lost a substantial proportion of its initial valuation, and it has a current market cap of $984 million.
In 2022, WalkMe recorded revenue of $245 million, 27% more than in 2021, but its net loss also grew, from $80.3 million to $108 million. On a non-GAAP basis, excluding various accounting items, chiefly stock-based employee compensation, WalkMe posted a net loss of $56 million in 2022, which compares with a loss of $51.5 million in 2021.
Adika was recently chosen among the "Globes" "40 under 40" list. In an interview he said that "Management today is different, and the emphasis is on profitability rather than on growth unlike in 2020. In the end, good companies with a good product and customers will remain."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 19, 2023.
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