Amsterdam tech company Mews cuts 15 percent of jobs to drive AI
The Amsterdam-based tech company Mews announced plans to cut about 15 percent of its jobs, equivalent to around 170 employees. The hotel software supplier with a valuation of over two billion euros said it intends to focus more on incorporating artificial intelligence, and will thus be able to continue operations with a slimmed-down workforce.
In an explanation of the company's reorganization, CEO Matthijs Welle said that the hotel industry will likely work primarily with artificial intelligence systems in the future, and that Mews aims to supply the software. To do so, the company itself must also be fully capable of understanding and handling developments in artificial intelligence, he wrote on LinkedIn.
Mews, founded in 2012, is currently growing rapidly. Earlier this year, the company managed to raise 300 million dollars, currently about 262.7 million euros, against a valuation of 2.5 billion dollars, or roughly 2.2 billion euros.
The decision was announced less than a week after the Netherlands entered into the summer school vacation period. But Welle said the company could not delay the layoffs any further.
He said the company could not wait to take action beforee "the landscape around us, and the company we have built for it, has changed irreversibly."
It is not yet known how many of those layoffs will affect employees based in the Netherlands. A spokesperson said that the reorganization will affect all teams and countries.
