Wholesale marketplace Faire, which raised $416 million 18 months ago, laid off 250 workers in a company-wide restructuring

• Faire laid off about 250 employees on Wednesday.
• It was the second time in just over a year that the wholesale marketplace company laid off workers.
• A spokesperson said the layoffs were part of a company-wide restructuring.

Faire, a wholesale marketplace, laid off approximately 250 workers on Wednesday.

A spokesperson confirmed the layoffs, stating that they were carried out in order to “better align our teams with our long-term vision.”

Faire stated that the layoffs were company-wide. According to one person familiar with the situation, people in engineering, product, design, and data science were affected.

“To support our hiring pace, we built our previous organizational structure with multiple layers of management.” “When we slowed hiring last year, we were unable to grow into that larger structure,” the company explained.

This is the second time the company has laid off workers in less than a year, though the second restructuring appears to be larger. Last October, it laid off about 7% of its workforce. According to The Information, Faire had approximately 1,200 employees at the time.

Faire is an online marketplace that connects independent brands with retailers who will carry their products. It was valued at $12.5 billion in May 2022 as part of a $416 million extension to its Series G round. Since its inception in 2017, Faire has raised over $1.4 billion. Dragoneer Investment Group, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, and Forerunner Ventures are among its investors.

Faire recently announced a collaboration with Shopify, establishing Faire as the preferred wholesale marketplace for Shopify merchants. Shopify’s point-of-sale technology is also now Faire’s preferred solution. As part of the deal, Shopify became a shareholder in Faire, which Insider first reported on in July. The amount invested was not disclosed.

“Our focus remains on being able to consistently support our independent retailer customer community as a dependable partner for the foreseeable future.” “We’re grateful to the team members who have contributed to Faire’s success thus far, and we’re sorry to part ways,” the company said.

Tech firms continue to lay off a large number of employees. According to Layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks all tech layoffs since the start of the pandemic, more than 247,000 people have been laid off as of 2023.

After seeing online sales soar during the early days of the pandemic, the e-commerce industry, in particular, has had to readjust to lower growth rates. Furthermore, many startups have struggled as VC funding has slowed since peaking in 2021.