Brave lays off 27 employees
Brave initially positioned itself as a "blockchain browser" and added several cryptocurrency-related features. More recently, the company has focused on AI with its product releases this year
Brave, a web browser and search startup, has laid off 27 employees across various departments, according to TechCrunch. The company confirmed the layoffs but did not provide further details about the remaining headcount or the reason for the layoffs.
PitchBook estimates that Brave has around 191 employees, which amounts to Brave cutting 14% of its staff. This latest round of job cuts comes approximately ten months after the company let go of 9% of its total workforce in October 2023. At that time, Brave stated that the cuts were due to "cost management in this challenging economic environment."
Brave initially positioned itself as a "blockchain browser" and added several cryptocurrency-related features. More recently, the company has focused on AI with its product releases this year. In June, Brave integrated its own search results with its Leo chatbot, allowing users to ask about the score of a sports match or obtain additional context about an article they are reading without navigating to a search page.
The company also offers a Leo Premium subscription for $14.99 per month for access to better models and higher limit rates. Earlier this month, Brave began allowing all users to link their own models to be used in the browser after testing the feature for several months. However, Brave has not disclosed the cost of developing and operating these AI-focused features, and it is unclear whether this cost was related to this wave of layoffs.
