It’s now clear that COVID-19 has become the most significant economic event in the past 100 years. Since the outbreak, we’ve had to plan for scenarios that were unimaginable just a few months ago. With the uncertainty that we’re all facing, we’d like to share how we have prepared Samsara to continue innovating and supporting you through this downturn, no matter how long or how deep it proves to be. 

Our management team worked together through the 2008 financial crisis. We successfully navigated that downturn by acting quickly to reduce expenses and maintain a reserve of cash on hand, which enabled us to stay focused on customers and innovation. We are taking these steps again now.

First, we raised $400 million in equity financing. Investors recognize the strength of our business as we tripled revenue last year and continue to grow significantly during the pandemic. This momentum enabled us to raise capital from high-quality, long-term oriented investors including Alliance Bernstein, Franklin Templeton, General Atlantic, Sands Capital Management, and Warburg Pincus, along with our previous investors Andreessen Horowitz, Dragoneer Investment Group, General Catalyst, and Tiger Global. With the new funding, we have approximately $600 million of cash on-hand.

Second, we took actions to reduce our expenses - ensuring that we can operate sustainably, without additional capital, even if the downturn is measured in years. Sadly this meant reducing our workforce by approximately 18%, or 300 people. The reductions are concentrated in certain markets outside of North America and in supporting functions like recruiting. This was a painful decision that affects our colleagues and friends, and we’re doing everything we can to support those who were impacted including severance pay, coaching and outplacement services, and healthcare coverage for the rest of the year.

We know that many of you chose to partner with Samsara because of our pace of innovation, and we want to assure you that this won’t change. We continue to invest significantly in R&D to enhance our products, expand our platform, and advance technologies like AI to improve the safety and efficiency of your operations. And we commit to continue delivering world-class customer onboarding and support.

This is a challenging time for all of us, but working with you over the past few months and seeing your resilience inspires us to keep innovating. We remain optimistic about the future, and we’ll be here to support you no matter how long the recovery takes.