RapidAPI headcount fell 82% due to new layoffs less than two weeks after cutting 50% of staff

Rapid (formerly known as RapidAPI), a startup that created an API marketplace valued at $1 billion last year, it has laid off another 70 employees less than two weeks after lay off 50% of your workforceTechCrunch has learned.

An affected employee who wished to remain anonymous told TechCrunch there are only 42 people left at the company, down from 230 in April, reflecting an 82% drop in headcount.

All of the company’s remaining workers in Europe, and some in the US, were affected by the latest round, according to the source.

Founded in 2015 by then 17 years Iddo Gino, RapidAPI created a platform that helps companies find and integrate third-party APIs, as well as manage their own use of their own internal APIs. It raised $150 million in March 2022 in a Series D round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2. Other backers include Qumra, Andreessen Horowitz, M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), Viola Growth, Green Bay Ventures and Grove Ventures.

Notably, CEO Marc Friend recently took over as CEO of the company. The founder and former CEO, Gino, is now a technical advisor, according to a company announcement. A source tells TechCrunch that Gino “was removed by the board” and that a sale of the company is expected as the next step, albeit for a price “well below” the $1 billion the company was valued at. last year.

TechCrunch reached out to ask Rapid if the latest layoffs had taken place, whether Gino was removed by the board and whether a sale was being prepared. The company only said that it would contact us if it chooses to comment.

Last November, RapidAPI announced that it had renowned to Rapid and that more than 4 million developers used its public API center. That hub, he said, had become one of the largest in the world, giving developers the ability to integrate more than 40,000 APIs from companies like Twilio, Microsoft and Google. At the time, he was promoting new corporate clients such as ATA, Poly, Formula 1’s Scuderia AlphaTauri and Sun Life Financial. He also boasted that he had doubled the number of company employees in the past year, to 200.

The source shared with TechCrunch that the layoffs have been “rushed and messy” without “offering support” and, in some cases, wrong terminations were submitted before being terminated.