A San Francisco short-term rentals company that was valued at $1.9 billion less than a year ago has now laid off a fifth of its corporate employees.
Sonder, a travel startup marketed as a more upscale alternative to Airbnb, announced Wednesday it would lay off 21 percent of existing corporate positions, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The company would also lay off seven percent of its existing frontline roles.
It went public in January, and in October of last year, was valued at $1.9 billion — a few million less than its initial estimated valuation of $2.2 billion earlier in 2021.
Sonder already weathered some challenges early in the pandemic, laying off or furloughing nearly a quarter of its staff at the onset of the pandemic.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Sonder is offering severance and benefits to laid-off workers — though the exact details have not been laid out publicly.
A representative from Sonder did not respond to a request for comment from SFGATE.
The company’s struggles are just another bellwether in the tech industry’s ongoing economic woes. Tech stocks have plummeted, VCs are reluctant to throw their moneyed weight behind new startups and more and more companies are pausing hiring, reneging on already-accepted job offers and laying off workers.
On Thursday, the retail delivery service Stitch Fix, also based in San Francisco, laid off 330 corporate workers, which comprises about 4% of its total staff, according to MarketWatch.
