Loam Bio, a heavily backed agricultural technology start-up that has banked more than $150 million from investors, including Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and Salesforce chief Marc Benioff, has laid off the majority of its staff in the US six months after its commercial launch in the country.

Insiders close to the company told The Australian Financial Review that its inexperienced leadership and an undercooked sales strategy risked undermining the potential of its promising technology, which they said was showing positive early results.