Eigen Labs lays off 25% of employees, turns focus to EigenCloud

Eigen Labs has laid off 29 employees as it reorients its EigenCloud product, Blockworks has learned.  

The product, which was unveiled last month, is a developer platform focused on off- and onchain verification. As part of the announcement at the time, a16z unveiled a $70 million investment. In total, the firm has raised $220 million — including $50 million in a Series A in 2023. 

The decision to reduce the headcount — which impacts 25% of employees — was not motivated by financials, and the project still has financial runway, an Eigen Labs spokesperson confirmed to Blockworks. 

The goal, as outlined by a note seen by Blockworks from Eigen Labs CEO Sreeram Kannan, is to reorganize “resources around the product and key user scenarios and streamlining our teams and leadership to give us years of runway to concentrate on building and growing EigenCloud.”

Employees from various roles and departments were impacted as part of the decision. No further reductions are planned at this time. 

Read more: A16z injects $100M into EigenLayer

“Restructuring our organization and saying goodbye to a number of our teammates, who have given so much to the project, is incredibly painful. This morning, I spoke with impacted team members, shared my immense gratitude for their contributions, and laid out how Eigen Labs is committed to supporting their next chapter with empathy, respect, and concrete resources,” Kannan’s message said.

“These changes enable us to sustainably pursue our long-term objectives with renewed focus and energy. While today’s reorganization is painful, I’m extremely optimistic about our future. Demand for verifiable compute is growing as developers build software for the AI era, and EigenCloud is uniquely positioned to service this market need with a cloud platform backed by billions in stake and thousands of operators around the world.”

Impacted employees who’ve been with the project for more than a year were given accelerated vesting on tokens, as well as three months’ base pay. Additionally, Eigen Labs is offering career support.

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