Mobileye unit Moovit shedding 30% of workforce

Public transport app company Moovit is laying off about 60 of its 200 employees. In a message to the company’s staff that has reached “Globes”, Moovit’s CEO said that after a comprehensive review of the company’s activity and its strategic priorities, it had been decided to downsize the workforce and carry out a restructuring. “Decisions like these are never easy, because they affect colleagues who have contributed their talents, dedication, and expertise to Moovit’s success,” the CEO wrote on Thursday.

“Some employees have received summonses to meetings with their managers that will take place on Sunday. In the course of these meetings we shall begin a process of a personal hearing required for examining your future with the company before we make any decision. No final decision has yet been made, and any decision will be made only after completion of the hearing process and review of all the relevant considerations,” the message continued.

In the restructuring, the company is expected to reduce its investment in its MaaS (mobility as a service) activity and to divert resources to growth in the consumer area and to deepening technological integration with parent company Mobileye Global Inc. (Nasdaq: MBLY) in the Robotaxi autonomous taxi project.

New strategy

A few months ago, Mobileye announced that it planned to operate the Robotaxi service itself in the US, and not just to sell the systems to companies such as Volkswagen. Moovit, which Mobileye acquired five years ago, has a significant part to play in this venture. “Globes” has learned that Moovit employees responsible for B2B and other departments that do not deal with this activity will be leaving the company.

In a call with investors on Thursday after the announcement that he would step down as CEO of Mobileye, Amnon Shashua said that joint teams from Mobileye and Moovit were being set up, and that Moovit would reduce its workforce on the B2B side of its business in order to focus on the new strategy. He said that Mobileye’s logo would be added to the Moovit app in the US in order to improve the identification of the Mobileye brand among US consumers.

The message from Moovit’s CEO also stated that the adoption of AI in the development cycle in the past year had improved productivity and had led to adaptation of the enterprise structure to the needs of product development in the future.

Only a few months ago, it was reported that Moovit was for sale, and at a price substantially below the $900 million that Mobileye paid to acquire it in 2020.