Rent the Runway Inc. said it would reduce its corporate workforce by 24%, primarily through layoffs, as the fashion-rental service adjusts to a slowdown in consumer spending and shifts from shopping habits adopted earlier in the pandemic.
The New York company on Monday didn’t specify the total number of jobs affected. It had 958 full-time employees and 138 part-time employees as of Jan. 31, according to securities filings.
The workforce reduction is meant to transform Rent the Runway from a cash burner into a company that can fund itself through revenue alone, co-founder and Chief Executive Jenn Hyman said in an interview. Rent the Runway was founded in November 2008 and since its inception it has incurred roughly $878 million of losses as of July.
“We’re significantly pulling forward the path to profitability. We can get to profitability at much lower revenue numbers,” she said, adding that the restructuring won’t cut marketing, inventory or customer-facing positions. “We’re not relying on growth in the same way to get us to profitability.”
