A spokesperson for Talkdesk confirmed the company has made “limited headcount reductions”, which constitute its third round of layoffs in under 14 months.
The company spokesperson revealed the news to TechCrunch, but she wouldn’t say how many people would be losing their jobs in this round of cuts.
Yet, an employee has since suggested that at least 140 employees have been made redundant.
Meanwhile, a Portuguese publication, Observador, noted that employees are being asked to sign a “termination by mutual agreement”, which would remove any guarantee of unemployment benefits.
Before that information became public, Tiago Paiva, Founder and CEO of Talkdesk, provided an email statement regarding the company layoffs: “Investments and advancements we’ve made in AI position us at the forefront of CX innovation, enabling a leaner, more agile global organization.
“The limited headcount reductions we made in a few areas will not negatively impact our speed of innovation.
We will continue to invest in and hire in strategic areas that allow us to innovate faster and more efficiently, at scale.
“As one example, we are evolving our location strategy. With our recent FedRAMP In Process designation and success in healthcare and regulated industries, we are increasing R&D investments in the U.S.
“Our business remains strong, and we have a tremendous market opportunity ahead of us.”
Forbes seemingly recognized that opportunity when it positioned Talkdesk in eighth place on the Forbes Cloud 100 list last month.
Before that, the privately-held business was valued at $10BN after raising $230 million in Series D funding in 2021.
Moreover, the vendor has attracted many high-profile clients, including IBM, Trivago, Canon, Glovo, and TAP Air Portugal.
A Short History of Layoffs
An anonymous source revealed that Talkdesk has made a number of cuts over the past 14 months in order to reduce costs and lower revenue projections.
Two rounds of layoffs took place in August 2022 and February 2023, at which time the company had around 2,000 employees in 19 countries, according to its website. The exact number of people still working at the company is currently unclear.
One affected employee claimed that as much as 20 percent of Talkdesk’s workforce could be impacted, although this was not confirmed.
Those layoffs may have influenced the vendor’s positioning in the recent CCaaS Magic Quadrant – as the vendor slipped out of the market leader quadrant after successive years there.
That said, Gartner did acknowledge that the vendor had increased its enterprise customer base – despite its reputation for partnering with mid-market businesses.
In addition, Talkdesk is only one of many CX tech vendors to have made multiple layoff in the past 18 months.
For instance, Pegasystems recently began its second round of layoffs this year. The tech company will reduce its staff headcount by a further four percent, equating to nearly 240 employees, across various countries, including the U.S. and UK.
The CRM vendor has attributed the reorganization of its customer success roles as the main reason behind its latest round of layoffs.