Australian e-bike start-up Zoomo cuts staff for second time, 8 per cent of jobs lost

It's the second round of lay offs for the firm in just eight short months as even the giants struggle with current economic conditions.

Zoomo co-founders Mina Nada and Michael Johnson have made their second round of job cuts. Picture: Supplied.

An Australian e-bike start-up has made its second round of job cuts in the space of eight months as it slashed a further 8 per cent of its workforce.

Zoomo had previously provided services to the grocery delivery service Milkun, which collapsed last month, by supplying electric scooters and e-bikes.

It also includes UberEats, Domino’s and DHL as customers but laid off 16 per cent of its global staff back in October last year, months after poaching executives from US rideshare companies Uber and Lyft.

Its latest round of jobs cuts have seen 27 staff let go.

“Zoomo has made the difficult decision to reduce its overall headcount by 8 per cent. The restructure will accelerate our path to company-wide profitability in 2024,” the company said.

“It primarily affects employees in our corporate head office, as we bring central overheads in line with regional profit.”

Zoomo co-founders Mina Nada and Michael Johnson. Picture: Supplied

The company had secured an $80 million capital raise, led by Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures, in November 2021, and in February last year acquired another $20 million in funding.

Zoomo was founded in 2017 with the Sydney-based company offering its e-bikes as part of a weekly subscription to gig workers, as well as fleet management software.

The company experienced a boom during the Covid-19 pandemic but has been unable to escape the tech wreck sweeping the sector.

It has also been impacted by competition from cheap e-bikes directly imported from manufacturers in Asia.

Sydney based e-bike company Zoomo was doing well out of lockdown and the boom in bike deliveries and demand for e-bikes. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

Zoomo is not the only Australian company to make sweeping job cuts in recent times.

Australian technology giant Atlassian revealed last month it was slashing 500 jobs from its global operations.

Fintech Finder has also made two rounds of cuts, including slashing 15 per cent of its workforce earlier this year.

A software firm called Thoughtworks, which has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, laid off 100 employees and another software development company, Kinde, laid off 28.5 per cent of staff at the end of last month.

Many start-ups have been battered as the ability to attract investors has become harder. Picture: Supplied

Globally, giants of the sector have also been shedding staff.

Facebook’s parent company announced the first lay-offs in its 18-year history in November – cutting 13 per cent of its workforce – about 11,000 jobs.

Meanwhile Google’s parent company Alphabet also enacted large-scale restructuring with 12,000 jobs cut globally.

Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy also told employees the company would act on the findings of a recent review and cut more than 18,000 jobs – around 6 per cent of the online retail giant’s global corporate workforce – and PayPal slashed its global headcount by 2000 employees.

Originally published as Australian e-bike start-up Zoomo cuts staff for second time, 8 per cent of jobs lost