Software startup Loopio has laid off nine percent of its staff, the CEO and co-founder announced on LinkedIn in late June.

“Yesterday, my co-founder Matt York and I made the difficult decision to lay off 9% of our Loopio team. This was not a decision we made lightly — every single person involved played a role in our growth and success,” Zak Hemraj wrote.

Neither Hemraj nor York could be reached for comment.

“While our team is a little smaller now, our ambition and commitment to our customers remain as strong as ever.”
—Zak Hemraj
CEO, Loopio

Board member Jafar Owainati also co-founded the startup, but in 2021 went on to found a software startup called Barley.

Loopio, which offers a request for proposal (RFP) platform—which it claims reduces the bottlenecks that happen when responding to RFPs, security questionnaires, and more—has between 200 and 500 employees, according to Crunchbase.

In his LinkedIn message, Hemraj didn’t disclose why the startup decided to downsize.

“While our team is a little smaller now, our ambition and commitment to our customers remain as strong as ever,” Hemraj wrote. “We’re still excited to shape the future of our category and build the market-leading Response Management solution for companies all over the globe.”

Loopio claims its response-management platform helps companies streamline their response process for RFPs, due-diligence questionnaires, security questionnaires, and any sales request that comes their way. The startup also claims to have over 1,300 businesses and organizations as customers globally.

The layoffs come right after Loopio announced its first acquisition as a startup in May. At that time, Loopio said it acquired United Kingdom-based Avnio for an undisclosed price. Avnio was a Salesforce-integrated company that offered an RFP-response solution.

RELATED: How Loopio went from bootstrapped startup to RFP leader

Loopio secured a $252-million CAD ($200 million USD) strategic investment from Sumeru Equity Partners (SEP) and Affiliates in 2021.

At the time, Loopio said it would use the funds to accelerate its product development, customer acquisition, and hiring.

Loopio, which was founded in 2014, has carried out cuts before. The startup laid off 11 members of its staff in 2020, which at that time represented eight percent of the company. These layoffs affected employees in sales, marketing, software development, and people operations.

Hemraj attributed these layoffs to the economic downturn caused by COVID-19, and a general slowdown in the purchasing of new software. As a result, Loopio scaled back its go-to-market strategy.

Previously, Loopio raised $11 million CAD from Boston-based OpenView, an expansion stage VC fund.

Back on LinkedIn, Hemraj wrote: “I want to offer my sincere thank you to all Loopers, especially the ones we said farewell to today. This is a group of exceptionally talented individuals that any company would be lucky to have.”

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