Pebble slashes 25 percent of its workforce as it refocuses on fitness

Pebble is laying off 25 percent of its workforce and will focus on the health and fitness aspects of its wearable, CEO Eric Migicovsky tells Tech Insider.

Though Pebble is a Kickstarter darling, and has raised over $26 million in additional funding over the past eight months, Migicovsky blames a cold fundraising atmosphere in Silicon Valley for the culling of 40 people from his staff.

We’ve definitely been careful this year as we plan our products. We got this money, but money [among VCs in Silicon Valley] is pretty tight these days.

Pebble is in this for the long haul. We have a vision where wearables will take us in five to 10 years, and this is setting us up for success.

He also says Pebble will soon go on sale in India next month via a partnership with Amazon.

It’s a tenuous time for Pebble. Fitbit rules wearables, and all indications are that Apple Watch is the juggernaut of the smartwatch realm. In a recent estimation of smartwatch sales from IDC, Pebble didn’t crack the top five manufacturers.

Pebble’s vision of dominating the low-end of the wearable market doesn’t seem to be working as expected, but Migicovsky has given his company a decade to cement a path forward, so it’s not a doomsday scenario just yet.

➤ Smartwatch company Pebble is laying off 25% of its staff [Tech Insider]