Tools for Humanity, Sam Altman’s eyeball-scanning startup behind the iris-scanning Orb, is laying off employees, according to an internal email seen by MISRYOUM. The company says it is changing “some roles and teams” as it moves to the next step in strategy, w
For a company built around an eye scan, the message landed with a different kind of focus: layoffs.
Tools for Humanity, the eyeball-scanning startup co-founded by Sam Altman, is laying off employees, according to an internal email viewed by MISRYOUM. The email was sent to staffers on Monday from the people team. It did not spell out how many people would be affected.
“As we enter the next step of our company strategy and operating priorities, we have made the hard decision to make changes to some roles and teams across the company,” the company wrote in the note.
The company said it will share details on its strategy and next steps in a town hall meeting on Tuesday.
The uncertainty has immediate stakes inside the business. Tools for Humanity employs more than 500 people, according to its website, and the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The layoffs come as the company faces a challenge that has followed it from product to policy: demonstrating how its iris-scanning Orb can generate revenue and win over regulators. Despite a $2.5 billion valuation and millions of sign-ups. the company has struggled to translate its breakthrough pitch into a clear business path.
Tools for Humanity was founded on the idea of using iris scans to prove a person is human rather than an AI bot. Its Orb—a shiny, volleyball-sized sphere—scans irises to generate a digital ID. People who participate can receive tokens of Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency distributed by the Cayman Island-based World Foundation.
Investors have backed the vision at a scale that underscores how high expectations have been. Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital, and Khosla Ventures have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the venture, according to PitchBook.
There’s a tight chain running through the facts on the page: the company’s internal decision to adjust roles and teams. the lack of disclosed layoff numbers. and the publicly described difficulty in showing how Orb will generate revenue and satisfy regulators—despite that $2.5 billion valuation and millions of sign-ups.
Tools for Humanity did not immediately respond to a request for comment, leaving one question hanging over Tuesday’s town hall: what exactly will “the next step” mean for the teams behind Orb, and for the people carrying the company’s most visible promise into its next phase.
Tools for Humanity Sam Altman Worldcoin Orb layoffs iris scanning digital ID Andreessen Horowitz Bain Capital Khosla Ventures World Foundation
So basically the eye scanner thing isn’t making enough money? Shocking.
I saw “Worldcoin” trending and figured it was already a scam lol. If regulators don’t like it, of course they’ll cut staff.
Wait are they laying people off because of the crypto part? Or because the Orb is like… not accurate? The article says “some roles and teams” which sounds like they don’t wanna say how many, which is kinda suspicious.
Sam Altman really built a whole business around getting scanned and tokens and then revenue doubts hit? I mean what did they think the next step was, just keep signing people up forever. Also $2.5 billion valuation doesn’t mean anything if the regulators are like “nope” and they don’t explain the layoff numbers. Town hall Tuesday should be fun… or just more vague stuff.