Proptech firm Roofstock has laid off about 27% of its employees as we speak, in line with an electronic mail despatched to staff that was seen by TechCrunch. The cuts come simply 5 months after the startup laid off 20% of its workforce.
The corporate’s website states that it has 400+ staff, or “Roofsters,” as they’re dubbed, however it’s not identified if that determine is present.
Roofstock, an on-line market for investing in leased single-family rental properties, one 12 months in the past raised $240 million at a $1.9 billion valuation. SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund 2 led that financing, which noticed participation from present and new backers together with Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Enterprise Companions, Bain Capital Ventures and others. Roofstock has raised a complete of over $365 million in funding since its 2015 inception, per Crunchbase.
In response to the e-mail, co-founder and CEO Gary Beasley stated as we speak’s discount in pressure (RIF) was “in response to the difficult macro surroundings” and the “destructive affect” it’s having on Roofstock’s enterprise.
He added that the corporate was not anticipating to have to chop extra employees so quickly, however that it wanted to “proper measurement” in an effort “to scale back money burn charge” and guarantee it has “sufficient capital runway till the market finally turns.”
Beasley despatched the e-mail as a result of apparently the Zoom assembly the place the layoff was addressed had “maxed out on attendees.”
Oakland, California-based Roofstock lets folks purchase and promote rental properties in dozens of U.S. markets. The premise behind the corporate is that each institutional and retail buyers can purchase and promote properties with out forcing renters to go away their properties. In the meantime, patrons may also presumably generate revenue from day one.
On the time of its fundraise in March 2022, the corporate stated that it had facilitated greater than $5 billion in transaction quantity, greater than half of which had come from the final 12 months alone.
Simply days earlier than its final spherical of layoffs final 12 months, Roofstock made headlines for selling its first single-family home using NFTs, or non-fungible tokens.
Rising mortgage charges and a slowdown within the housing market led to challenges for a lot of actual property know-how firms in 2022 that proceed this 12 months. Opendoor, Redfin, Compass, Better.com and Homeward are among the many different startups which have additionally laid off staff. IBuyer firm Reali final August stated it was shutting down, only a 12 months after elevating $100 million.
TechCrunch has reached out to Roofstock however had not heard again on the time of writing, however a number of sources confirmed that layoffs had taken place as we speak.
