Ottawa-based software startup Rewind has announced that it has laid off 37 of its 135-person staff, representing a 27 percent reduction in its workforce. The company, which helps companies on platforms like Shopify protect and secure their data, made the announcement in a March 22 blog post to its website.

In an interview with BetaKit, Rewind co-founder and CEO Mike Potter confirmed the layoffs, noting that they were a result of the company’s lower-than-anticipated growth. Potter attributed this to a slowdown in demand for online shopping and the company’s high correlation to Shopify’s growth.

Rewind had a busy 2021, announcing $19 million CAD in Series A financing in January, its acquisition of Berlin-based GitHub backup service BackHub a month later, followed by an $83 million Series B round that September. The company has since revised its fundraising plans and is now looking to become cash flow breakeven in the near future.

The layoffs come as part of a broader trend of tech companies cutting staff amid the current market downturn. According to Layoffs.fyi, 522 tech companies globally have cut over 153,000 employees since the beginning of January. This amount puts tech layoffs in 2023 on pace to surpass all of 2022 in about a third of the time.

Potter believes Rewind is in a good position to navigate the market downturn, noting that the company is returning to its roots of running the business in an efficient manner.

“We’ve always run [Rewind] in a way that’s been extremely efficient,” said Potter. “I’d say we’ve gotten away from that core value in the last couple of years as we’ve raised our Series B round, and that’s really what we’re getting back to.”

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