Brave Software, the company behind Brave Browser and Search, has confirmed a 9% reduction in staff across various departments. The decision was attributed to the challenging economic conditions.
A spokesperson for the company informed TechCrunch, "In light of the difficult economic landscape, Brave has made the decision to cut some positions, impacting 9% of our workforce across multiple departments."
This year, the company has been working to diversify its revenue streams. In April, Brave Search transitioned from using Bing Index to its own indexing solution. In May, the company launched its search API, offering a range of plans starting at $3 per 1,000 queries, as well as options for AI data model training, data storage rights, spellcheck, and autosuggest. In August, image, news, and video results were added to the Search API.
Brave is also developing a native AI assistant named Leo for its browser. The company intends to offer Leo to all users but will include a premium tier with additional features such as higher rate limits and access to more conversation models. This premium option will assist in covering API access and hosting costs.