Cardlytics, an Atlanta-based analytics and technology company, announced Friday it will lay off almost 15 percent of its workforce.
Company co-founder and chief operating officer Lynne Laube said Cardlytics had a good first quarter and that business is strong. But to get to profitability, the company needed to trim its staff.
“The employees impacted are good employees,” she said. “This (is about putting on) us on the path to being profitable in a matter of months.”
The company employs about 200 people in metro Atlanta and has offices in New York City, London, San Francisco, and Chicago. Workers losing their jobs — which will include some executive positions — will be given a “generous severance package” that is “well above market standards,” Laube said.
Cardlytics, which offered classic video games and cocoon nap pods when it moved into its Ponce City Market headquarters in downtown Atlanta in 2015, has said it is planning an IPO and showing it’s profitable could help make a public offering more attractive. The company raised about $70 million in 2014 in a Series F round of financing led by hedge fund Discovery Capital.
Laube, who co-founded the business with Scott Grimes in 2008, said that while the company is letting some people go, it will still be looking to add others to its ranks.
“We are still hiring today in key critical areas,” she said.