Carbon Robotics Cuts Staff Despite $100m Revenue and IPO Path

Carbon Robotics, the Seattle-based maker of laser weeders and tractor autonomy systems that passed $100 million in revenue in the year to March 2026, has laid off an undisclosed number of employees across the US and internationally.

VP marketing Brett Goodwin confirmed the cuts in a statement to AgFunderNews and Geekwire, which broke the news. He did not say how many positions went, and he did not respond to follow-up questions.

"We did have to realign costs due to broader economic conditions," Goodwin said. "Employees impacted were distributed across the US and internationally and across a variety of positions. Carbon Robotics has 275 employees worldwide."

That headcount figure sits at odds with the company's own recruiting. A Reddit post from March inviting people to join the firm described a "team of over 300 people." Goodwin did not confirm the March number or explain the gap.

What do former employees say?

An October 17 post on Glassdoor, attributed to a former employee, claimed the company had "rapidly scaled headcount only to issue a sudden massive layoff months later, with some employees let go just weeks after starting."

The post praised the "high degree of autonomy and ownership" afforded to staff but said communications "lacked transparency, as leadership consistently painted an overly optimistic picture right up until the cuts." It added: "The final layoff message from the CEO also showed no sincerity or respect."

These are single-source claims from an anonymous review; the company has not addressed them beyond its cost-realignment statement.

How strong was the business before the cuts?

In August, speaking to AgFunderNews at the Ruggedize ag robotics conference at Reservoir Farms in Salinas, founder Paul Mikesell outlined an aggressive growth case. He pointed to a market of thousands of laser weeders a year and potentially 30,000–40,000 tractors annually for the firm's autonomy technology. The company is developing an as-yet-unannounced machine and ultimately aims to go public, he said.

"We are currently available in about 20 countries around the world, and we're seeing the most traction in the United States, and then Western Europe, and Australia is pretty strong also," Mikesell said. "Laser weeders work in all the major growing regions where there's a lot of vegetables grown."

For grower customers, the economics Mikesell described center on reduced labor, reduced input costs, "dramatic yield improvements," and the shift from transplants to direct seeding — with payback in one to three years.

Who finances the machines?

Asked whether the price tag deterred buyers, Mikesell said banks approached the company as orders grew: "The banks were coming to us saying, okay, how do we help finance these things because we understand what this machine is, we see the residual value and we understand there's a resale value."

Some lenders now write operating leases for LaserWeeders. "With an operating lease, you don't have to put capital up front; you just pay a certain amount every month, and then as long as you're making more money than that off the benefits from the LaserWeeder, you're cash positive immediately," he said.

A firm with $100 million-plus revenue, bank-backed leasing and an IPO roadmap cutting staff without disclosing numbers leaves the real cost picture — and the accuracy of that optimistic messaging — for investors and growers to watch as the next financial results land.