Rapid, an Israeli startup valued at $1 billion a year ago, lays off half of its workforce

API unicorn Rapid (formerly known as Rapid AP) valued at $1 billion just a year ago, has laid off half its workforce, translating to about 115 employees. The unicorn startup doubled its team over the past year at a time when the economy was booming. But the newly appointed CEO, Marc Friend, swiftly implemented cutbacks after taking over the reins from the founder, Iddo Gino, last week.

The job cut is part of “a significant restructuring” as part of the effort to “right-size the company,” CEO Marc Friend said in an email to the company’s employees.

Last Wednesday, Rapid informed its employees that the company’s founder, Iddo Gino, would no longer continue as its CEO. Gino founded Rapid eight years ago while he was a 17-year-old high school student in Haifa, Israel. Under Gino’s leadership, Rapid attained unicorn status, raising $150 million in Series D funding at a valuation of $1 billion in March of last year.

“We have grown large as an organization and often sacrificed agility. Moving forward, we will be disciplined on our product focus and ruthless about customer success,” Friend said in an email to the company’s employees. CEO and founder Iddo Gino is now a technical advisor, per a company announcement.

An insider familiar with the company’s internal operations reported that the recent layoffs affected around 115 employees located across Europe, Tel Aviv, and San Francisco. The CEO’s email, which was sent on Monday, only stated that a substantial number of workers would be let go within the following days. The layoff wave has reportedly affected personnel from various departments, such as sales, talent acquisition, engineering, product, and marketing.

Rapid was founded in 20215 by Iddo Gino and Mickey Hasalvsky. The Israel startup provides a platform that allows developers to easily find, use, manage, and collaborate application programming interfaces (APIs). Rapid also helps businesses discover and integrate third-party APIs, as well as manage their internal APIs’ usage.

With a developer community of over 4 million active developers, Rapid is a leading provider of API Hub services. The Rapid API Hub aids both individual developers and businesses of all sizes in creating, utilizing, and administering their APIs.