Startup Digest: Uber to cut costs & slow down hiring, Oyo acquires Direct Booker, 9Unicorns marks fifth close of its maiden fund at $100 million

Uber Technologies will scale back hiring and reduce expenditure on its marketing and incentive activities, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees in a letter.

Khosrowshahi said Uber's change in strategy was a necessary response to the "seismic shift" in investor sentiment. To address the shift in economic sentiment, Uber will slash spending on marketing and incentives and treat hiring as a “privilege,” Khosrowshahi said.

"We have to make sure our unit economics work before we go big. The least efficient marketing and incentive spend will be pulled back,” he added. The company will now focus on achieving profitability on a free cash flow basis, rather than adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, Khosrowshahi stated in the letter.