Autonomous electric tractor startup Monarch Tractor warned staff on Thursday that it may need to lay off more than 100 employees, or possibly ‘shut down,’ according to a company-wide memo obtained by TechCrunch.

The memo comes as Monarch Tractor was already cutting some positions at its California corporate facilities and remote teams in India and Singapore within weeks, according to several former employees who spoke to TechCrunch on condition of anonymity.

Monarch Tractor was founded in 2018 by a team that included Carlo Mondavi, a former top executive at Tesla’s first Gigafactory and a scion of a famous brewing family. The company raised at least $220 million, including $133 million in 2024, as it pursues a goal of creating a “driver-optional” autonomous tractor that can perform tasks in places like wineries and other fruit farms.

Although Monarch Tractor claims to have shipped 500 of these tractors to date, the company announced a restructuring in late 2024 that was supposed to expand its tractors into other use cases, such as moving feed in dairy farming and maintaining golf courses. CEO Praveen Panista also said at the time that Monarch Tractor would focus more on selling software services and licensing the company’s proprietary tech.

At least one customer — one of Monar Tractor’s first dealers — claims the autonomous tech has never worked better, according to a lawsuit first reported by TechCrunch this week. Idaho dealership Bricks Tractor claimed Monarch sold it “defective” vehicles with “significant problems” after they arrived in 2024. Basically, Brix accused the King’s tractors of being “incapable of operating autonomously”. (The king denied the claims filed in court.)

Monarch Tractor advised employees in a memo Thursday that it’s trying to get even harder away from making tractors — which may not be surprising, given that the startup lost its contract manufacturer, Foxconn, earlier this year.

“The new business plan will enable OEMs to launch Autonomy as a Service (SaaS) and other software offerings directly to customers, unlocking new revenue streams,” the startup’s human resources team wrote. “Unfortunately, the time to complete the transition to a new business venture puts King at risk of closure.”

Monarch told employees in the memo that it could permanently lay off “up to 102 employees.”

It is unclear how many people currently work for the king. The startup had about 300 employees at the end of 2024 when it retained more than 10% of the company as part of a restructuring. Former employees familiar with the recent cuts could not say how big the cuts were. Penmesta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Over the course of the year, Monarch Tractor has also lost some top talent, including Tesla co-founder Mark Sugar.

“We started King with a bold vision: that farming could be made electrified, automated, smarter and more profitable – all at the same time.” Post In July, explaining that he would remain on the company’s board. “The King is in a great position and in great hands for the next phase of its trajectory – making this transition time right.”