Privacy-focused Brave cuts 9 percent of its workforce amid tough economic climate

Over the past few months, several large companies, including Microsoft and Embracer Group, have laid off employees for economic reasons. The latest to join the trend is Brave Software. The search engine and privacy-focused browser has laid off approximately 9% of its workforce in response to the challenging economic environment.

While exact numbers were not disclosed, the job cuts impacted several departments across the company. In a statement to TechCrunch, a Brave spokesperson said,

Brave eliminated some positions as part of our cost management in this challenging economic environment. Several departments were affected, amounting to 9% of our staff.

For those unfamiliar, Brave Software is the creator of the Brave browser and a privacy-focused search engine, launched in 2016.

In recent months, Brave has been actively working to diversify its revenue streams. In April, the company took a major step by transitioning Brave Search away from relying on Microsoft's Bing index and deploying its own solution. This increased Brave's independence and allowed it to control the search experience better.

The following month, Brave launched a commercial Search API that offers clients various paid plans and features. In addition to the basic $3 per 1,000 query plan, the API provides options for AI model training, spellcheck, auto-suggest, and access to query results with storage rights.

Brave continued its efforts and expanded the API's capabilities in August by rolling out integrated image, news, and video results.

In addition to developing its search offerings, Brave has been testing an AI assistant, Leo, that is directly integrated into its privacy-focused browser. While Leo will have basic functionality for all users, the company is planning a premium tier to unlock additional conversation models and higher rate limits.

However, the tough macroeconomic conditions have led the company to downsize staffing levels to help manage costs. Affected employees were notified earlier this month.

Source: TechCrunch