ERR has obtained a letter to employees from Pipedrive CEO Paulo Cunha , in which he writes that the company is significantly reducing its size in all its locations — which means fewer teams, management layers and locations. Cunha said the changes affect most of Pipedrive's current jobs and roles, adding the company will be speaking to every employee individually over the next two days, to explain whether their job is at risk and what will happen next.

Äripäev also reported Pipedrive is to make structural changes which will significantly reduce its size both in Estonia and in other countries it has a presence in.

Pipedrive marketing chief Mariliis Beger would not confirm to Äripäev whether the Tallinn and Tartu offices will remain open, stating: "We can't say at the moment, because different employment laws apply in different countries."

The group currently employs nearly 800 people, around half of them in Estonia.

In his letter, Cunha said the aim is to turn into a company which brings new solutions to market faster, understands its customers more deeply and succeeds through product strength. He said the goal is more time for work requiring depth and fewer obstacles to doing it — "in many ways a company that operates like the startup we started out as."

Pipedrive says it intends to remain product-focused and continue investing in its core CRM aspects, with a sharper focus on quality and reliability. Alongside that, it says it is building an AI-driven sales system for teams which records sales conversations, keeps data current, recommends next steps and handles routine tasks so salespeople can spend more time selling.

The company states it also wants to reduce its dependence on paid search advertising, cut management layers and meeting frequencies, and consolidate into fewer locations, so that most core teams are located in the same office.

"Small businesses' habits and expectations around buying software are evolving quickly," Cunha continued, adding that continuing to deliver value to customers requires changing how software is built and sold, and how the company operates.

He said more small businesses are asking artificial intelligence (AI) for software recommendations, that free web traffic driving the company's growth has fallen sharply, and that paid traffic to replace it costs more.

Cunha wrote that recent product updates had taught the company it needs to move faster: "We invested more in product and marketing, reorganized product development, changed our ways of working and significantly reduced operating costs." But he said those steps alone were not enough: "To build a company that matches our vision, we need a smaller and simpler organisation, focused on fewer priorities and more strongly product-centered."

He added that the layoffs do not mean AI is being used to cut costs or to replace people — AI has simply changed what customers want and how they find the product.

According to Äripäev, Pipedrive is closing its Portuguese office. It still operates in Tallinn, Tartu, New York, Prague, Florida, London, Berlin and Dublin.

Founded in 2010 by Ragnar Sass, Timo Rein, Martin Henk, Urmas Purde and Martin Tajur, Pipedrive became one of Estonia's 10 unicorn firms (a privately held startup valued at US$1 billion or more) around a decade later.

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