Redwood Supplies lays off 10% in restructuring to chase vitality storage enterprise

[ad_1] Redwood Supplies has laid off round 135 workers, or roughly 10% of its workforce, because it restructures to higher accommodate its rising vitality storage enterprise, TechCrunch has realized.

The cuts come simply 5 months after Redwood reduce 5% of its workforce, and three months after it closed a $425 million funding spherical that boosted the battery-recycling firm’s valuation to north of $6 billion, as TechCrunch beforehand reported.

It’s been a tough time within the battery trade recently. Earlier this month, battery recycler Ascend Parts filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety, citing “insurmountable” monetary challenges. Some battery makers have additionally restructured or gone out of enterprise because the automotive trade within the U.S. has backed away from its most optimistic and impressive plans to transition to electrical automobiles.

However Redwood Supplies founder and CEO JB Straubel instructed workers that this new spherical of cuts will not be an indication that the corporate is heading down the identical path.

“Redwood at the moment is the strongest it’s ever been,” Straubel wrote in an e-mail to the employees who weren’t laid off, in keeping with a replica seen by TechCrunch. “The supplies enterprise is effectively on its strategy to profitability and has an thrilling roadmap forward.”

Straubel famous that Redwood “proceed[s] to dominate the US battery recycling market” but in addition touted the corporate’s “nice momentum” in its new vitality storage enterprise. Redwood has just lately introduced offers with Crusoe AI and, most just lately, electrical automaker Rivian to supply recycled batteries that can be utilized to energy these corporations’ amenities. The corporate declined to remark past the contents of Straubel’s e-mail.

In his message, Straubel wrote that “components of the corporate have expanded sooner than wanted to help the route” of Redwood. Because of this, he mentioned Redwood is making cuts throughout a number of divisions, together with the engineering and operations organizations, in keeping with an worker who was granted anonymity to debate the layoffs.

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“We're assured that we will ship on our important tasks with a smaller crew that's extra targeted,” he wrote. “We have now efficiently tailored to adjustments out there which have bankrupted lots of our opponents.”

Straubel went on to put in writing that he's “extra excited than ever with our path forward as we construct essentially the most built-in and cost-effective important supplies and vitality storage enterprise on the earth.”

“It is a self-sustaining enterprise and can proceed to make this firm extra worthwhile over time. We have now the crew and the know-how to do what no different firm can,” he wrote.

Staff who had been laid off had been instructed by Redwood’s chief HR officer that the layoffs had been made “to sharpen our focus, our work and the scale of our groups to help the route Redwood goes sooner or later,” in keeping with a replica of her e-mail, which was seen by TechCrunch.

Workers who had been laid off are receiving severance and paid well being advantages, in keeping with Straubel’s e-mail, in addition to “profession transition help.”