Rapid (previously known as RapidAPI), a startup that built out an API marketplace valued at $1 billion last year, has laid off another 70 employees less than two weeks after letting go of 50% of its staff, Tech Zone Daily has learned.
An affected employee who wished to remain anonymous told Tech Zone Daily that just 42 people remain 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 based in the U.S. were impacted by the latest round, according to the source.
Founded in 2015 by then-17-year-old Iddo Gino, RapidAPI built a platform that helps businesses find and integrate third-party APIs, as well as manage their own usage of their own internal APIs. It raised $150 million in March of 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 and Grove Ventures.
Notably, CEO Marc Friend only very recently took over the role of chief executive of the company. Founder and previous CEO Gino is now a technical advisor, per a company announcement. A source tells Tech Zone Daily that Gino “was removed by the board” and that a sale of the company is expected as a next step, although for a price “well below” the $1 billion it was valued at last year.
Tech Zone Daily reached out to ask Rapid if the latest layoffs had taken place, if Gino was indeed removed by the board and whether a sale was in the works. The company said only it would get back to us if it chooses to comment.
Last November, RapidAPI announced it had rebranded to Rapid and that more than 4 million developers used its public API hub. That hub, it claimed, had grown to among the world’s largest — giving developers the ability to integrate more than 40,000 APIs from companies such as Twilio, Microsoft and Google. At the time, it touted new enterprise customers such as ATA, Poly, Formula 1’s Scuderia AlphaTauri and Sun Life Financial. It also boasted that it had doubled its company employees in the past year — to 200.
The source shared with Tech Zone Daily that the layoffs have been “rushed and messy” with “no support being offered” and in some cases, incorrect terminations being sent out before being rescinded.
