Bright Machines closing Israel R&D center
Bright Machines closing Israel R&D center
The robotics company has gradually cut its team in Israel over recent years and is now shutting its center down completely
Bright Machines is closing its development center in Israel and laying off about 60 employees. Eight of the company's employees in Israel will move to the United States, to the company's center in San Francisco, Calcalist has learned.
Prior to the layoffs, Bright Machines employed a total of around 200 people in Israel, U.S., and Mexico.
The company's Israeli CEO and founder, Lior Susan, told Calcalist that "after six years, we made the difficult decision to close the development center in Israel. The purpose of this move is to improve our efficiency and speed as a company. As a robotics company, our customers are overseas, and this relocation will allow us to develop closer to our customers. This strategic change will enable Bright Machines to continue being innovative and to realize our vision of transforming the manufacturing world."
Bright Machines was established in May 2018 and is engaged in the development of software-based autonomous production lines for industry. After the previous round of layoffs in 2022, 120 employees remained at the company's headquarters in Tel Aviv, but their number has gradually decreased. Susan is also one of the founders of Eclipse Ventures, which previously invested in Bright Machines and recently recorded an impressive success with the IPO of Cerebras Systems.
Bright Machines employed as many as 500 people in 2021 and was planning to go public via a SPAC merger at a $1.6 billion valuation that year before the deal fell through due to market conditions.
