Buzzy luggage startup Away has furloughed half of its staff and laid off 60 employees as the coronavirus continues to crush the travel industry

• Buzzy unicorn luggage startup has furloughed about half of its workforce and laid off another 60 corporate employees, according to a report in The Information.
• Away's founders Steph Korey and Jen Rubio announced the cuts in a blog post on Tuesday, which have affected nearly every department at the New York-based company.
• The news comes on the heels of a bombshell investigation by The Verge in December 2019, which described a problematic workplace culture at the company.
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Away is the latest startup to be hit by layoffs amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The unicorn luggage startup has furloughed about half of its workforce and laid off another 60 corporate employees, according to a report in The Information. More than 500 people list Away as their employer on LinkedIn.

The company's founders Steph Korey and Jen Rubio announced the cuts in a blog post on Tuesday, which have affected nearly every department at the New York-based company. Travel has been hit particularly hard amid the coronavirus crisis, and Away's sales have plummeted 90% over the last few weeks, The Information reported.

The company is giving employees eight weeks severance and will cover the cost of health care coverage through June and extending the time employees have to exercise their stock options after leaving the company, according to the report.

"Today, the company's salary costs alone exceed our revenues many times over," Korey and Rubio wrote in the blog post. "What once seemed like a healthy cash balance is no longer enough to keep the lights on without dramatic action."

The news comes on the heels of a bombshell investigation by The Verge in December 2019, which described a problematic workplace culture at the company and led to Korey stepping down as CEO. Korey ultimately returned to the role when Stuart Haselden, a former Lululemon COO, was named co-CEO.

Other direct-to-consumer companies, including lingerie startup ThirdLove and beverage startup Iris Nova, have cut staff as consumer spending declines amid the coronavirus pandemic. Online spending on direct-to-consumer products week over week declined 7% on average between March 2 and 22, according to Edison Trends data.

Away has raised $181 million in venture capital funding and is backed by venture firms Accel and Forerunner Ventures.

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