Ouster lays off 10% of staff

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Ouster develops high-resolution LiDAR sensors for the automotive, industrial robotics and smart infrastructure industries. | Source: Ouster

Ouster announced that it is reducing its headcount by approximately 10%, reducing spending across the business by over 15% and suspending sales of common stock through at-the-market. The changes are part of the company’s comprehensive cost reduction initiative. 

As of December 2021, Ouster employed approximately 217 people on a full-time basis in the U.S. and 61 people full-time internationally, for a total of 278 employees. Ousters cuts could affect around 28 employees in the company. 

The company is pairing these cuts with moves to accelerate its market share capture, like product releases and targeted commercial strategies. Recently, Ouster announced the release of its 3D industrial LiDAR sensor suite designed for high-volume material handling applications. 

“We are laser-focused on bolstering our path to profitability and minimizing capital requirements. These efforts, coupled with our industry-leading margins, focused growth, and robust product roadmap, especially the upcoming launch of the L3 chip, keep us on that path,” Ouster CEO Angus Pacala said.

The company brought in $10.3 million in revenue in Q2 of 2022, up 40% year over year, but its net losses totaled $28 million in the same quarter. Ouster recently adjusted its FY 2022 revenue guidance to $40 million-$50 million, down from its original guidance of $65-$85 million. 

Ouster hopes that with its cuts in gross cash spending across operational expenditures, capital expenditures and inventory, its gross cash spending in 2023 will total $107 million. The company’s gross cash spending includes capital expenditures, inventory and operational expenditures, excluding stock-based compensation, depreciation and litigation expense. 

Its operating expenses for the first six months of 2022 totaled over $72 million, according to the company’s recent SEC filing. Ousters operating expenses include its research and development expenses, development of new products, personnel-related expenses and more. 

“Ouster is well-positioned to emerge as the market leader this year. We continue to deliver best-in-class hardware, capture market share, progress toward achieving product and safety-specific certifications, and build a robust software ecosystem to expand our addressable market,” Ouster CFO Anna Brunelle said. “We identified areas of the business where we can operate with greater efficiency, allowing us to further execute on our strategic initiatives and deliver high-performance products to our hundreds of customers in order to bolster our path to profitability.”

Ouster went public on the NYSE in March 2021 after it completed its business combination with Colonnade Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).