Tours Platform Zozi Parts Ways With Founder and CEO, Lays Off Some Staff
Photo Credit: Tours and activities companies like the one providing this skydiving experience are users of the California startup Zozi's booking software. World Skydiving Center
Skift Take
The once lavishly funded tours startup Zozi says it is still healthy, though it had to lay off many employees. The restructuring will have Zozi de-emphasizing its consumer product to "double down" on its B2B reservation service unless another player swoops in for its assets.
Zozi, a decade-old tours and activities company based in San Francisco, parted ways with founder and CEO T.J. Sassani in January over what the company characterizes as "strategic differences," Skift has learned.
The acting CEO is Elon Boms, a board member and investor who is based in the northeast U.S.
Zozi this month laid off a large percentage of its employees, as was first reported by TechCrunch. The company offers a backend reservation management and payments platform for what it describes as "thousands" of tour operators, plus a consumer-facing marketplace of experiences, such as skydiving workshops and cat yoga sessions.
Zozi is one of the most lavishly funded companies in the ranks of tours and activities startups, having raised at least $44 million, including a $30 million Series C in 2015 that was led by Pritzker Vlock Ventures, with investor Richard Branson of Virgin Group participating.
Zozi tells Skift it closed on more funding in January. But the amount and inv
