Toronto, Jan 18 (IANS): Canada-based Clearco, an e-commerce investor providing equity-free capital solutions to e-commerce businesses, has laid off 30 per cent of its workforce, the media reported.

Clearco co-founder Michele Romanow also stepped down as chief executive of the company, reports Tech Crunch.

This is the second round of job cuts, as back in July, Clearco laid off 125 employees or 25 per cent of its workforce.

Now, Clearco only has 140 staff, down from 500 just last year, according to the report.

"We don't ever lie, we are under the same pressures as every other company to become a profitable business. And so we've just continued to make the hard decisions and continue to be ahead of the curve," Romanow was quoted as saying.

In 2022, the company saw its other co-founder, Andrew D'Souza, step down from his CEO role, to be replaced by Romanow.

Now, both the co-founders will assume executive chairman positions, said the report.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is reportedly set to fire nearly 11,000 employees this week amid the global economic slowdown.

Sky News reported that Satya Nadella-run company is "finalising plans to become the latest technology giant to reduce its workforce during a global economic slowdown".

The company's contemplating reducing roughly 5 per cent of its workforce, "which, if accurate, would equate to approximately 11,000 jobs".