Redwood Supplies has laid off round 135 staff, or roughly 10% of its workforce, because it restructures to raised accommodate its rising power storage enterprise, TechCrunch has discovered.
The cuts come simply 5 months after Redwood minimize 5% of its workforce, and three months after it closed a $425 million funding spherical that boosted the battery-recycling firm’s valuation to north of $6 billion, as TechCrunch beforehand reported.
It’s been a troublesome time within the battery trade these days. Earlier this month, battery recycler Ascend Parts filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety, citing “insurmountable” monetary challenges. Some battery makers have additionally restructured or gone out of enterprise because the automotive trade within the U.S. has backed away from its most optimistic and bold plans to transition to electrical autos.
However Redwood Supplies founder and CEO JB Straubel advised staff that this new spherical of cuts isn’t an indication that the corporate is heading down the identical path.
“Redwood at present is the strongest it’s ever been,” Straubel wrote in an electronic mail to the employees who weren’t laid off, in line with a duplicate seen by TechCrunch. “The supplies enterprise is properly on its solution to profitability and has an thrilling roadmap forward.”
Straubel famous that Redwood “proceed[s] to dominate the US battery recycling market” but in addition touted the corporate’s “nice momentum” in its new power storage enterprise. Redwood has just lately introduced offers with Crusoe AI and, most just lately, electrical automaker Rivian to offer recycled batteries that can be utilized to energy these firms’ amenities. The corporate declined to remark past the contents of Straubel’s electronic mail.
In his message, Straubel wrote that “elements of the corporate have expanded quicker than wanted to help the route” of Redwood. In consequence, he mentioned Redwood is making cuts throughout a number of divisions, together with the engineering and operations organizations, in line with an worker who was granted anonymity to debate the layoffs.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco, CA
|
October 13-15, 2026
“We’re assured that we are able to ship on our crucial initiatives with a smaller crew that’s extra targeted,” he wrote. “We have now efficiently tailored to modifications available in the market which have bankrupted lots of our rivals.”
Straubel went on to jot down that he’s “extra excited than ever with our path forward as we construct essentially the most built-in and cost-effective crucial supplies and power storage enterprise on this planet.”
“This can be a self-sustaining enterprise and can proceed to make this firm extra precious over time. We have now the crew and the expertise to do what no different firm can,” he wrote.
Employees who had been laid off had been advised by Redwood’s chief HR officer that the layoffs had been made “to sharpen our focus, our work and the scale of our groups to help the route Redwood goes sooner or later,” in line with a duplicate of her electronic mail, which was seen by TechCrunch.
Staff who had been laid off are receiving severance and paid well being advantages, in line with Straubel’s electronic mail, in addition to “profession transition help.”
“I’m grateful to the roughly 135 staff who we are saying goodbye to at present — they’ve all contributed to constructing Redwood,” he wrote.
While you buy by way of hyperlinks in our articles, we might earn a small fee. This doesn’t have an effect on our editorial independence.
