Machine learning startup H2O lays off 10% of employees

H2O.ai, a startup that offers commercial support for open-source machine learning software, last week laid off 10 percent of its employees, mainly in sales, VentureBeat has learned. Cofounder and chief executive Sri Ambati confirmed the move -- which affects nine people, including contractors, out of a total of roughly 90 -- in an interview with VentureBeat. Ambati put the layoffs in the context of broad strategic changes at H20. The startup has stopped trying to generate revenue from lots of users of its free open-source software and is instead seeking to work very closely with a few major customers. Then, next year, Ambati said, H20 can introduce new cloud services that can be promoted through more conventional sales and marketing tactics.