Kickstarter-backed Pebble, which makes smartwatches, has laid off over a quarter of its workforce. On the other hand, in an interview with Tech Insider, CEO Eric Migicovsky revealed the company has raised over $26 million on top of its $20 million Kickstarter campaign.
"We've definitely been careful this year as we plan our products," Migicovsky said. "We got this money, but money [among VCs in Silicon Valley] is pretty tight these days."
Migicovsky blamed the slow fund-raising market for the layoffs, emphasising that Pebble is looking at long-term growth and an entry into the health and fitness aspects of smartwatches. He also confirmed Pebble would start selling its smartwatches in India through Amazon.
Pebble's line-up includes five watches whose prices range between $100 and $250.
Pebble has teamed up with Stanford University to develop Pebble Health — a feature that will allow Pebble smartwatches to track user activity. It will even track the amount of sleep a user gets, reports the Next Web.
Tech Insider said the wearable device market is seeing shaky times, with plummeting stock values and slashed prices. Apple's reign in the smartwatch market is expected to fall from 63 percent in Q4 last year to 49.9 percent in 2016, slipping further to 37.6 percent in 2020. It was also reported that Apple Watch's prices have been reduced by $100 in the U.S. and by Rs 5,000 in India.
According to a report by the International Data Corporation (IDC), the Pebble OS, which powers Pebble's smartwatches, will have a 7 percent share of the smartwatch market, which will slip to 2.7 percent in 2020.
