INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Cratejoy, a startup that runs a marketplace for subscription businesses and helps founders launch and scale their own subscription box
services, has laid off 18 members of its 43-person team.The company co-founder and chief executive officer Amir Elaguizy confirmed the
He says the cuts are part of a restructuring effort to keep costs in line and that subscribers and merchants will not be impacted.The
startup has raised a total of $10 million to date from investors, including Charles River Ventures, SV Angel, Andreessen Horowitz, Maverick
Capital, Start Fund and ACE Venture Fund
Cratejoy completed the Y Combinator accelerator program in the summer of 2013 alongsideDoorDash, Le Tote and Bloom That, which itself
recently hit pause on its on-demand flower service.&This was a hard decision made by the leadership team to keep our costs in line,&
&Whenever we&re forced to make hard staffing decisions it is difficult, and this reduction was no exception
We had to part ways with many very good and talented people.&Elaguizy declined to elaborate on any other changes to the
business.Austin-based Cratejoy sells a curated collection of subscription boxes and helps entrepreneurs develop their own subscription box
It exists on the premise that the future of e-commerceis these packaged collections of goods delivered on a recurring basis.For some time,
venture capitalists were drinking the subscription box Kool-Aid, but those days appear to be over
Funding into subscription box startups, according to Crunchbase data, has dropped off significantly.Cratejoy was founded in 2014 amid the
subscription box funding boom
The same year it completed its $4 million Series A, Birchbox completed a $60 million round, Dollar Shave Club raised $13 million and Stitch
Fix brought in $30 million.With 30 companies raising about $200 million, 2014 was the highest on record for investment in subscription box
companies.Last year, companies in the sector raised just $39.7 million across 20 deals.Evernote lost its CTO, CFO, CPO and HR head in the
last month as it eyes another fundraise
