Space and defense startup True Anomaly has laid off around 25% of its workforce and canceled its summer internship program, TechCrunch has learned.
“Given our rapid growth over the last two years, we have looked at every aspect of our business to ensure we are focused on our goals and best positioned to deliver,” said a company spokesperson. “We noticed the duplication of roles and functions across the company and therefore reduced our headcount. This does not impact our ability to honor our contracts with customers or our mission to bring safety and sustainability to the space domain.”
While TechCrunch could not confirm the total number of employees before these layoffs, True Anomaly had over 100 employees as of December 2023, the company told the Denver Business Journal. According to a post on LinkedIn from one of those laid off, nearly 30 people were laid off from work.
On April 24, employees began posting about the layoffs on LinkedIn; According to these reports, those affected worked in sales, business development and recruiting. At least some interns were abruptly informed last Friday, April 19, that the summer internship program had also been canceled. The internship was scheduled to start on June 1st.
The Centennial, Colorado-based startup closed a $100 million financing round last December; At the time, executives said the workforce had grown to 107 employees. Earlier this month, True Anomaly CEO Even Rogers told TechCrunch during an interview about the company’s first mission that the company is “well capitalized”.
True Anomaly hopes to modernize space defense with its Jackal spacecraft and Mosaic software platform for command and control operations. The startup plans to use Jackals in orbit to approach, take images and collect information about other objects in orbit.
True Anomaly started the first mission called Mission The Anomaly, however, hardly slows them down. The startup is pushing to launch at least two more launches in the next 12 months and is targeting another launch in October, a person told TechCrunch.
The person was offered an internship and spoke to TechCrunch on condition of anonymity, saying a technical recruiter suggested the internship program was canceled because the company did not have the staffing capacity to organize and oversee an internship project . The team also begins work the $30 million reaction space contract that the company was recognized earlier this month, the person said.