- Eaze quietly laid off as many as 25 employees on Wednesday.
- The layoffs include members of its engineering and live operations team.
- Eaze didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Cannabis tech startup Eaze quietly laid off as many as 25 employees, Insider has learned.
The layoffs took place on Wednesday, and the cuts included members of Eaze’s engineering team and live operations team, which handles its delivery service. Three former employees described the job cuts to Insider. They asked not to be identified to preserve relationships and protect future job opportunities in the industry.
Eaze didn’t respond to requests for comment sent to its press line and to an outside PR firm.
Eaze began as a cannabis delivery service in the Bay Area and has weathered a few tumultuous years of executive churn, layoffs, and business pivots.
The latest layoffs come after quietly cutting jobs in October and again in February, Insider has learned. The February layoffs affected roughly 20 employees, including Eaze’s government affairs and communications team, its legal team, and other divisions, according to two people familiar with the matter. The company laid off 36 employees in 2019.
Eaze has also seen a parade of long-tenured senior executives depart in the past few months, the people said.
In August of last year, the startup — once a darling of the young cannabis industry — acquired Green Dragon, a chain of cannabis dispensaries with storefronts in Colorado and Florida, in an all-stock deal. The acquisition was an effort to pivot into selling cannabis itself rather than just delivering it, as Insider has reported.
In 2020, Eaze shifted to running its own dispensaries, rather than partnering with other companies, Insider previously reported. The company was forced to pare back expectations that it would sell over $1 billion worth of cannabis that year as well.
Eaze’s struggles aren’t unusual in the broader tech industry. During the earlier part of the pandemic, the US technology industry boomed. Firms like Amazon and Apple reached record-breaking market caps, while private companies received large funding injections from venture capital firms loaded with cash. But now, an ugly downturn has hit the industry with layoffs brewing.
Eaze CEO Rogelio Choy told Insider in August that the company was looking to raise a $75 million Series E funding round at a $700 million pre-money valuation, with 80% of the capital already committed as of last August. While it’s not clear if that round closed as intended, venture capital database Pitchbook shows that Eaze raised $60 million in new funding in September.
Are you an Eaze employee with insight to share? Got a tip? Contact Kylie Robison at krobison@insider.com, through secure messaging app Signal at 347-829-5826 or Twitter DM at @kyliebytes.
Jeremy Berke at jberke@insider.com, through secure messaging app Signal at 646-376-6002 or Twitter DM @jfberke.
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