Well, that was fast. Just six months after everyone was warning about a startup reckoning, tech is booming again — coronavirus be damned 🤷🏻♂️.
The latest evidence? Using data from PitchBook and Layoffs.fyi, the Financial Times identified more than 20 startups that recently raised funding at higher valuations despite laying off employees (including Carta, Sonder, and Stack Overflow).
It’s not just private markets that have recovered. Shares of data startup Snowflake gained 112% on its first day of public trading yesterday, boding well for the half dozen startups about to IPO in the coming weeks. Maybe it’s time for me to finally join all the millennials trading options on Robinhood? 😉
Despite the froth, layoffs are unfortunately still happening. I won’t be turning Layoffs.fyi into IPO.fyi anytime soon (plus, someone already registered it 2 weeks ago 😠).
Below is a recap of the layoffs from this past week. Check out the Layoffs.fyi Tracker for a complete list of all tech layoffs during the pandemic.
🏢 NS8 ∙ 🌎 Las Vegas ∙ 👩 240 employees (95%) ∙ 🔗Source
- NS8, a fraud prevention startup, laid off nearly its entire staff. Ironically, the layoff came just days after NS8 informed employees that it was itself under investigation for fraud. The startup’s CEO abruptly resigned amid the SEC investigation, and has claimed that he “did not walk away with the companies [sic] money.” NS8 raised a $123 million round of funding just months ago.
🏢 Bleacher Report ∙ 🌎 London ∙ 👩 20 employees ∙ 🔗Source
- Digital sports media company Bleacher Report will lay off 20 employees later this month, representing nearly its entire London office. The UK staff had been focused on Bleacher Report’s football brand (what we Americans call “soccer”), and there’s speculation that this layoff is part of a series of decisions to pull back from its investment in the sport. Bleacher Report is currently owned by AT&T.
🏢 HubHaus ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 100% of employees ∙ 🔗Source
- HubHaus, a co-living startup that manages shared homes, is shutting down and laying off all its employees. The startup says that it failed to attract enough tenants, perhaps because the pandemic has exacerbated rental markets in cities like San Francisco.
🏢 Welkin Health ∙ 🌎 SF Bay Area ∙ 👩 10 employees (33%) ∙ 🔗Source
- The New York Post learned that patient healthcare software startup Welkin Health laid off a third of its workers in late April. Three days later, the company received a PPP loan worth over $1 million. Welkin claims that a declining sales pipeline caused the layoff. Since PPP loans are only forgivable if a company maintains its headcount, it’s likely that Welkin will need to pay back the loan.
Thanks to Layoffs.fyi intern Stephan Billingslea for contributing to this post.