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Foursquare<\/a>, the location-focused outfit that in 2020 merged<\/a> with Factual, another location-focused outfit, is joining the parade of companies<\/a> to make cuts to one of its biggest cost centers \u2013 employees \u2013 in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n Per an email sent out to staffers this afternoon by current CEO Gary Little and viewed by TechCrunch, 105 employees were just let go as the company seeks to \u201cstreamline\u201d its operations, and \u201cset the company on more sustainable financial footing.\u201d<\/p>\n Impacted employees saw their system access removed upon receipt of Foursquare\u2019s notification email.<\/p>\n Little didn\u2019t return a request for comment by the time of this post\u2019s publication on Thursday evening, and his letter to employees doesn\u2019t shed much light on Foursquare\u2019s go-forward plan. According to one source, the layoffs represent roughly 25% of the company\u2019s employees.<\/p>\n The letter does, however, address which units were impacted and, relatedly, the divisions that Foursquare plans to ditch, including Visits, OCF, and Foursquare City Guide.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Little\u2019s letter, Foursquare is also pausing work on a number of other initiatives, including \u201cMobile Developers Tools, Geode, and the current version of FSQ Insights.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Foursquare, a darling during the earlier days of the iPhone that invited users to \u201ccheck in\u201d at locations to earn badges, and which relied on hyperlocal ad revenue to fuel its business, later evolved into an enterprise tech company that sees brands and publishers leverage its data.<\/p>\n For example, Atmosfy<\/a>, a seed-funded short-form video platform that invites users to explore local businesses, uses Foursquare\u2019s API to bolster its own app.<\/p>\n After its merger with Factual, whose location software helped marketers zero in on customer segments \u2013 say, people in the market for a new home \u2014 Foursquare moved even further in the same direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n Today\u2019s layoffs aren\u2019t the first to hit Foursquare. Employees were laid off at the time of the merger and some reported a separate round of layoffs in 2022.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Little stepped into the role of CEO in late 2020, roughly six months after Foursquare\u2019s all-stock merger with Factual was announced (the combined outfit ditched the Factual brand). <\/p>\n The financial terms of the deal were never disclosed, but Little was largely installed to protect and grow an investment in Foursquare by The Raine Group<\/a>, a merchant bank where Little was previously a managing director and which led a $150 million round<\/a> of funding in Foursquare in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n Foursquare has not publicly reported a new funding round since that time. The 15-year-old company has raised an estimated $400 million over the years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n