AR laptop maker Sightful is laying off a third of its employees

Israeli startup Sightful, which is developing a laptop that uses spatial computing to offer users an AR “monitor” through glasses, is laying off 20 employees, a third of its workforce. The layoffs are part of a strategic decision to focus solely on software development and stop building and marketing a complete laptop. As a result, the company’s hardware division has been disbanded.

Sightful, founded in 2020 and revealed just a year ago with over $60 million raised from Aleph, Symbol and Corner Ventures, has been hailed as one of the most intriguing companies in Israel. Founded by Tamir Berliner and Tomer Kahan, who previously worked at Magic Leap and PrimeSense, the company has developed a laptop that replaces the physical screen with AR glasses, allowing users to open dozens of virtual screens. This innovation allows you to work comfortably in public places, without violating your privacy. Sightful began selling a computer called the “Spacetop” about a year ago for $2,000, and recently re-launched it as the Spacetop G1.

Shortly after the relaunch and during Apple’s release of AR Glasses, Sightful decided to abandon the hardware component and focus on marketing the operating system and software for AR computers. The company says this shift is being driven by rapid technological advances in the computing market, highlighted by global tech giants’ announcements of AI-powered computers. According to Sightful, this change accelerates its business model by allowing its operating system to be deployed across different computers without being “locked” to its own device.

“This is not the path the company intended to take so soon after the announcement of the Spacetop G1—a product designed with the necessary hardware and processing power to enable spatial computing in a laptop form factor. However, this rapid expansion into the broader market is very much in line with the company’s long-term strategic vision, which has always been focused on software that brings AR productivity to as many people as possible,” the company wrote in a press release. “Essentially, these market changes have enabled Sigthful’s path to accelerate. This acceleration has positive aspects, including significantly increasing our total addressable market and faster speed to market, but it also has negative aspects, including laying off valued employees.”

Berliner, CEO and co-founder of Sightful, said, “The timing of this strategy is sooner than we had planned, but as a dynamic startup, we have to adapt and respond to changing market conditions, especially when they accelerate our plans. We continue to champion the ‘world of mobile work,’ we believe strongly in the power of augmented reality, and we remain committed to our mission to free the laptop industry from the constraints of screens. This necessary shift in business focus means parting ways with a group of incredibly talented and groundbreaking individuals who have been true partners in establishing our vision. We thank those who believed in us from the beginning and we are doing everything we can to help them find new opportunities.”