Around 120 employees have to leave the Berlin company.
(Photo: Taxfix)
Berlin The wave of layoffs in the German start-up scene continues. In the past few days, the Berlin companies Coachhub, McMakler and Taxfix have announced that they will be separating from numerous employees.
Many young companies are currently having to cut costs in order to make themselves less dependent on investor funds in view of the ongoing economic weakness and the turnaround in interest rates. This is because venture capitalists are still very reluctant when it comes to financing start-ups that are already larger and require correspondingly larger cash injections for their growth.
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At the online coaching provider Coachhub, it is the second time this year that employees have had to leave the company. Another ten percent of global jobs will be cut, Coachhub announced on Friday. This step is necessary to secure the future of the company. The economic environment is currently very difficult.
While Coachhub did not provide any information on the specific numbers, the data service Layoffs.fyi spoke of 60 jobs that will be eliminated. Coachhub only let go of around 80 employees at the end of January, which corresponded to ten percent of the workforce at the time.
The news came as a surprise to many observers. Unlike many other start-ups, Coachhub was able to collect $200 million from investors last summer. In March, the company moved into a 5,000 square meter office in Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse to manage its international business from there.
Taxfix cuts jobs after takeover
The job cuts at Taxfix are also unexpected. The tax app provider is valued by investors at more than one billion dollars, making it one of the so-called unicorns. In February, Taxfix made headlines with the takeover of its smaller competitor Steuerbot.
The company, which was founded in 2016, has now explained that the macroeconomic financing environment has changed in recent months. Therefore, it is currently more important than ever to position yourself as an independent company in the long term. The acquisition also created synergies. In order to become more profitable, Taxfix is cutting a fifth of its jobs. Around 120 employees have to leave the company.
McMakler also has experience with layoffs. The real estate start-up already cut 190 jobs last year and is now adding another 60. “We very much regret this step, but unfortunately it was unavoidable,” explained McMakler.
The reasons for the layoffs are the persistently difficult situation on the real estate market and the deteriorating macroeconomic environment. Around 750 people are currently employed by the start-up, which wants to abolish traditional brokers.
In order to secure much-needed fresh money from investors, the fast food delivery service Flink recently resorted to layoffs again. Because in order to receive 150 million euros from existing investors, the financiers demanded that Flink immediately reduce its costs.
After the start-up had already laid off 8,000 employees over the past few months, mainly drivers, another 100 jobs were added in administration at the end of May. 500 people work there now.
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