HackerOne lays off 12% workforce as 'one-time event'

HackerOne, a widely known bug bounty and penetration testing platform, is cutting up to 12% of its workforce as the global economic slowdown continues to impact the tech community.

The San Francisco-based startup announced its layoffs on Wednesday, TechCrunch learned and confirmed with the startup. The decision will impact the startup's employees worldwide, including those in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Netherlands and other countries, HackerOne CEO Marten Mickos said in an email to employees, which was also posted to the company's blog.

"This comes as disappointing news, as we've all built strong connections with our fellow Hackeronies. These actions are necessary to be successful long-term," said Mickos. "We've designed this reduction in force as a one-time event. We don't claim to have perfect visibility into our future financial performance or the macroeconomic climate, but we unequivocally wanted to take a single action and move forward with confidence."

HackerOne has more than 450 employees globally. This suggests the layoffs will impact more than 50 employees.

Mickos said the affected employees will receive severance packages including cash compensation and non-cash benefits.

HackerOne said the company continued to hire new employees and invested in new products to expand its platform capabilities, but the products did not meet expectations and caused cost burdens, the executive noted.

"HackerOne remains a category leader. We are one of the most important contributors to cybersecurity worldwide. We plan to be better, stronger, and faster when an improved business climate ultimately emerges," Mickos said.

HackerOne has raised close to $160 million since its inception in 2012, with the last funding of $49 million received in January last year. The startup counts GP Bullhound, New Enterprise Associates, Valor Equity Partners, EQT Ventures and Dragoneer Investment Group among its key investors. Moreover, it serves its bug bounty platform to entities including the U.S. Department of Defense, Google and Microsoft to help fix their vulnerabilities by connecting them with a worldwide community of security researchers.