AI fraud detection software maker Inscribe.ai lays off 40% of staff

Yet another AI-powered fraud detection software provider is laying off staff. Inscribe, whose platform works to detect fraud in areas like business underwriting, tenant screening and onboarding, has cut just under 40% of its staff, which equates to dozens of employees. The news follows that of another small round of layoffs at AI-powered plagiarism detector Turnitin, whose CEO had last year touted how AI would enable the company to reduce its headcount.

According to sources, Inscribe’s board recommended the cuts as the current market caused the startup to miss its revenue goals for over a year.

San Francisco-based Inscribe.ai confirmed the headcount reduction to TechCrunch, noting that the AI advances in the financial services industry necessitated a pivot to a new product and direction for the company.

“2023 was a year of change for our customers and Inscribe,” explained Inscribe CEO and co-founder, Ronan Burke. “Many of our customers in the fintech industry had to contend with higher interest rates and an unpredictable future for consumers and businesses. Additionally, the advances in AI in 2023 present one of the largest opportunities for the financial services ecosystem — enabling improved customer experiences, more efficient processes and fairer decisions,” he continued.

“In Q4 of last year, we set out on a new product strategy to align with these two industry shifts, and we have a large product launch planned for later this year related to this, which we are very excited about. As part of the change in strategy, in January of this year, we made the difficult decision to reduce the size of the team by just under 40%, mostly in go-to-market and operational roles,” Burke said.

The company was already a relatively small operation, with 60 (or more) employees, according to LinkedIn and PitchBook, a mix of engineering, product design, AI expertise, marketing, sales and more.

In January 2023, Inscribe raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Threshold Ventures with participation from Crosslink Capital, Foundry, Uncork Capital, Box co-founder Dillon Smith and Intercom co-founder Des Traynor. The round brought Inscribe’s total raise to date to $38 million. At the time, the company forecast it would double its then 50-person workforce over the coming 12 to 18 months.

Sarah Perez is reachable at sarahp@techcrunch.com or @sarahperez.01 / 415.234.3994 on Signal.