Smart glasses maker North lays off 150 employees

North, the makers of smart glasseshaslaid off 150 employeeswhich constitutes a major portion of its workforce. The smart glasses firm Northrecruited more than 400 employees.  Hence, the layoff affects a significant chunk of the workforce. However, the company defended its decision of expanding the workforce saying that it was needed during that time.

The smart glasses by North uselaser technology for projections in front of users’ eyes. Reportedly, the company raised $130 million in funding. The investment was done by some of the top venture capitalists including Intel, Amazon etc. The company launched its product in January and a few weeks later, it reduced the glasses’ introductory price from $999 to $599.99. However, the company said that the price changes had nothing to do with the initial success of the product.

“In order to succeed long-term, we’re faced with some tough decisions,” saidStephen Lake, North CEO and co-founder. “We decided the layoff of a certain number ofemployees in order to focus our resources and ensure we have sufficient runway to execute on our upcoming milestones over the next 18-24 months. This was a difficult decision, but an important one to ensure long-term success.”

As per a post by Reddit, the manufacturing department of North is the one that suffered the layoff most, but as per Lake, the smart glasses company plans to continue growing its Kitchener-Waterloo headquarters in Canada.