The tech company layoffs have hit Europe. Several of Europe’s best-known startups have made drastic cuts to their teams in order to cut costs and preserve their cash runway as the global economy takes a downturn.

Tech stocks have crashed on public markets, and private company valuations have taken a hit as a result. Investors are writing cheques more cautiously, while urging their portfolio companies to preserve cash. Consumers are also beginning to watch their pennies, putting B2C startups in an especially tight position.

That means it’s an unfortunate time to be out raising funding — and particularly bad timing if you’re a scaleup with a big monthly burn rate.

The tech company layoffs started with the likes of fintech giant Klarna, speedy grocery poster child Gorillas, online events platform Hopin and digital health company Kry. They’ve since spread rapidly across sectors.

Here, we list the layoffs that we know of — and hope that this helps hiring managers at other startups know where to look for new talent.

Tech company layoffs: European startups letting employees go

Consumer

• Cazoo, the secondhand online car retailer, is planning to reduce its employee headcount by 15%. That will affect 750 jobs. It is also freezing hiring for “non-essential roles”, according to an investor presentation seen by Sifted.
• Getir, the grandad of the fast grocery delivery sector, is cutting around 14% of its staff globally — about 4,500 roles
• Gorillas, the fast grocery delivery startup, is letting around 300 employees go from its Berlin headquarters
• Zapp, the speedy grocery delivery startup, told staff in an email, seen by Sifted that 10% of its team is facing redundancy. The email cited increased inflation, the war in Ukraine and supply chain disruption as factors behind the layoffs. Zapp confirmed the situation to Sifted
• Domestika, a platform for online courses and e-learning, has laid off around 150 employees from an 800-strong workforce
• Memmo, a celebrity video sharing platform based in Sweden, has laid off 40% of its 120 staff
• Boozt, the Swedish ecommerce platform is cutting around 5% of its 1,400 staff
• Daniel Wellington, famous for its watches,  has announced 15% layoffs — around 200 roles
• Seller X, an Amazon aggregator based in Berlin is cutting 28 jobs
• Zego, a commercial motor insurance provider, is laying off 17% of its staff

Fintech

• Nuri, the Berlin-based digital bank, announced it is letting go of part of its team. The company told Sifted that 45 employees will be affected — that’s 20% of its workforce. CEO Kristina Walcker-Mayer said in a blog post that the business needs “to shift our strategic plans towards earlier profitability to adapt to the new reality in the financial markets”
• Klarna, the buy now, pay later giant, plans to lay off 10% of its global workforce. The majority of roles affected are based in Stockholm, Sifted analysis shows, while when it comes to departments, the talent acquisition and engineering teams have been hardest hit.
• Uncapped, the revenue-based financing startup, has made 29 of its staff redundant — 26% of its total headcount. Most of the roles cut were product engineers, the company told Sifted.
• Clearco, the Canadian HQ’d and best-funded revenue-based financing startup active in Europe, has made 25% of its global staff redundant, its founders announced in a memo on LinkedIn. They also said the company is looking at “strategic options” for its international operations. It comes after the company made 10% of its staff in its EMEA hub in Dublin redundant in June.
• Freetrade, the London HQ’d trading platform, is making 15% of its staff redundant. Its CEO Adam Dodds told staff about the plans at an all-hands meeting last Thursday. The company told Sifted that employees have been offered the chance to take voluntary redundancy, “in a bid to reduce the number of compulsory redundancies that may be required.”
• Curve, the London-based digital wallet aggregator, has made between 60 and 70 people redundant – but it won’t disclose what percentage of its employees this is. According to LinkedIn data, Curve’s headcount is 425 people, meaning this could represent up to 10% of its workforce. CEO Shachar Bialick told Sifted that the company had made the decision to cut the roles “with the aim of putting us in the best possible position for growth in the second half of the year.”
• Bitpanda, the crypto trading platform, is laying off around a third of its staff, as it looks to extend runway to weather the current crypto winter. The company said it is reducing its headcount to a target of 730 people, and Sifted understands that its current headcount is 1100 — meaning the layoffs represent 34% of staff. Bitpanda’s three cofounders told employees: “We need to make fundamental changes in how we operate and sharpen our focus by getting back to the basics, prioritising safety and compliance, user experience, education and community, while deprioritising everything else.”

Healthtech

• Kry, the digital health scaleup, confirmed it was letting go of 10% of its workforce (around 100 people)
• Babylon, the UK healthtech app that provides easy access to GPs, physiotherapists, nurses and pharmacists, is planning to cut 100 jobs across its global workforce. The layoffs come as the company plans to reduce costs by up to $100m during the third quarter of 2022.

 Mobility

• Voi, the scooter startup, is letting go of 10% of the employees from its Stockholm headquarters — about 35 people
• Arrival, an electric vehicle startup headquartered in London is planning to lay off 30% of its workforce

Recruit tech

• Stint, the London-based casual recruitment platform, confirmed that 20% of its 140 employees are at risk of redundancy.

SaaS

• Hopin, the once extremely highly valued online events platform, let 138 employees go in February (12% of its staff). The company then let a further 29% of its workforce go this month — amounting to 242 people.

Our list of tech company layoffs in Europe will be regularly updated. If you work at a company that announces layoffs, please let us know. This article was last updated on August 2 2022. 

Tech companies still hiring in Europe

Not all startups have been so badly affected by the global downturn, however. These companies are still hiring for plenty of roles.