NEW YORK – Genome editing technology startup Inscripta has closed its Boulder, Colorado, and San Diego offices, laying off at least 43 people.
According to a Dec. 2 worker adjustment and retraining notification filing with the state of Colorado, Inscripta laid off 43 people at its Boulder headquarters. It is unclear whether the firm has filed WARNs in California.
Multiple former employees have posted about the layoffs on the social media site LinkedIn over the past week. One laid-off engineer suggested that there were "several dozens of people" in the same situation as he was. Another laid-off employee described the layoffs as "extensive."
Inscripta will apparently keep its location in Pleasanton, California. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some posts referenced a strategic "pivot" for the company; however, the authors did not provide additional information. Inscripta has been selling a black-box CRISPR genome editing platform called Onyx.
The layoffs come about a year and a half after Inscripta raised $150 million in Series E financing, led by Fidelity Management & Research and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates. The firm has raised at least $380.5 million in total.
Initially founded as Muse Bio, Inscripta emerged from stealth mode in 2017 and launched its instrument in 2019, though initial shipments were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.