Flex office company Knotel slashed its 400-person workforce by half, as the coronavirus pandemic has drained the unicorn startup’s membership base.
Knotel laid off or furloughed 195 employees worldwide today, Commercial Observer reported.
“Business as usual is over,” Knotel CEO Amol Sarva told the publication. “[The coronavirus crisis] isn’t short and we’ve decided that we’re going to take some sharp action ourselves on this. We’re going to prepare for the worst case.”
The cuts come after Knotel, which reached a valuation of $1 billion last year, laid off 24 employees in New York earlier this year.
The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in more than 80 percent of Knotel’s customers now working remotely or stop moving in, CO reported.
Sarva said the company offered laid-off employees six months of health insurance in lieu of severance payments. Sarva cut his salary in half.
Other short-term space companies have had to make cuts as well. Convene last week laid off nearly 150 employees. WeWork is considering cutting 1,000 workers. [CO] — Rich Bockmann
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