I wanted to share that today I made the extremely tough decision to reduce the size of the cLabs team. We will be parting with 12 individuals, including both employees and long term contractors, from a team of 90. An additional 4 have been offered similar roles that we were already able to identify at other organizations in the Celo ecosystem.
Each of the individuals impacted is exceptional, and their significant contributions to cLabs and the Celo community will endure. We will be continuing to support them with severance packages, health insurance costs, mental health support, and proactive assistance in identifying new roles using every resource we can.
Unfortunately, the broader macroeconomic climate has led cLabs to reprioritize and refocus on projects which are most impactful to builders and users in the near term. None of our core work on the Celo blockchain, Mento stable assets, nor developer tooling is affected.
This is a painful process, especially for those directly impacted. Ultimately, we owe it to the community to ensure that cLabs is set up to come out of the current downturn in a position of strength. We are extremely bullish on the potential for Celo and the ability to deliver frictionless cross-border payments, lending, and savings to improve lives and communities.