Baraja, a heavily backed Australian driverless technology start-up valued at $300 million at its last funding round in 2021, has made about three-quarters of its workforce redundant amid concerns about tightening global funding prospects and slower-than-expected take-up.

Despite counting the CSIRO venture capital fund Main Sequence Ventures and start-up sector heavyweight Blackbird Ventures among its investors, and receiving a cash injection from Swedish company Veoneer in January, co-founder and chief executive Federico Collarte said major staffing cuts had been unavoidable.