Seattle-based digital healthcare startup 98point6 has conducted a new round of layoffs, the company confirmed Tuesday.
98point6 did not provide details on the number of employees affected.
A number of posts from affected workers began showing up on LinkedIn last week. One affected employee told GeekWire that a majority of staff was let go. Another worker who joined the company more than six years ago called her layoff an “unplanned departure.”
The company has around 100 employees in the U.S., according to LinkedIn.
In a statement to GeekWire, 98point6 called the workforce reduction “part of a larger action at the company” and said a number of employees transitioned to Transcarent as part of its partnership with the San Francisco-based startup. 98point6 said it will continue to have an appropriate level of staffing as it continues to license its software to other healthcare organizations.
The layoffs follow a tumultuous past several years for 98point6, founded in 2015 as a virtual primary care provider. The company saw huge growth during the pandemic and raised a $118 million Series E round in late 2020.
But then the startup went through an abrupt leadership change in 2021 when co-founder and CEO Robbie Cape was pushed out by the board.
In July 2022, the company laid off 10% of its workforce, saying that the cuts were made “to align with the future needs of the business.”
In March of last year, 98point6 announced that it was selling its virtual care platform and primary care business to Transcarent for $100 million in cash and equity. 98point6 relaunched as a software-only company focused on licensing its tech to third-party healthcare providers.
A month later, in April 2023, 98point6 raised $30 million to support its transition to the new business model. The investment was intended to help the startup scale the software business and develop new innovations such as data modeling and artificial intelligence.
In January, the company acquired the remaining assets of Bright.md, a Portland-based asynchronous telehealth provider.
98point6 currently has no open positions on its jobs board.
Cape, a Seattle tech veteran, founded the company alongside Gordon Cohen, a professor at the University of Arizona, and Jeff Greenstein, a longtime Seattle business leader and philanthropist who is chairman of 98point6. Greenstein became CEO after Cape’s departure. The company is currently led by CEO Jay Burrell.
The tech downturn in 2022 led to widespread layoffs that continued throughout last year, when more than 250,000 tech workers lost their jobs.
The pace of layoffs has slowed but companies are still shedding jobs in 2024, with more than 74,000 jobs cut at more than 250 organizations, according to Layoffs.fyi.
98point6 is currently in the No. 46 spot on the GeekWire 200 ranked index of Pacific Northwest startups. The company won the GeekWire Award for Health Innovation of the Year in 2019. It has raised nearly $300 million.
