SAN FRANCISCO – Tempo Automation has laid off 62 of its employees, leaving only seven employees on its payroll in an effort to reduce overhead and keep the company operational, according to an SEC filing from Monday.
CEO Joy Weiss and Ralph Richart, Tempo Automation’s chief technology and manufacturing officer, are remaining with the company but will cut their base salaries by 50% for the foreseeable future. The company’s chief financial officer, Ryan Benton, also tendered his resignation on Friday in addition to the layoffs.
The company's filing said the layoffs and executive salary cuts come as a way of reducing corporate overhead to better position the company to fund its planned operations while meeting obligations as they come due. Tempo has “experienced negative cash flows since inception that raise substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue,” the filing said. The company’s revenue in the first quarter of 2023 was $2.8 million, while its net loss was $7.4 million.
The company said it is working to identify alternative sources of capital and means of reducing expenses that may permit it to continue, including raising debt or equity capital and other alternatives, but there is no guarantee that it will be able to raise additional capital, or that the plan of termination and related workforce reduction will be sufficient to permit the company to continue operations.
Tempo Automation went public in November through a special-purpose acquisition company deal with South Korean firm Ace Convergence Equity Partners that was worth around $100 million. The company's stock price soon dropped from a high of around $15 a share in mid-November to $1 by the start of 2023, and was selling at $.30 a share as of Thursday.