Proptech firm Opendoor lays off 550 employees amid challenging market

Proptech platform Opendoor has laid off nearly 550 employees, or 18 per cent of its workforce, as the real estate technology company navigates through "one of the most challenging real estate markets in 40 years."

The company's CEO and Co-founder Eric Wu said in a blog post that prior to the fresh firing round, they scaled back their capacity by over 830 positions -- primarily by reducing third party resourcing -- and eliminating millions of fixed expenses.

"We've made the difficult decision to reduce our team by 550 people across all functions -- approximately 18 per cent of the company," Wu said late on Wednesday.

The affected employees will get 10 weeks of severance pay, with an additional two weeks of pay for every full year beyond two years of tenure.

"All current healthcare benefits will remain active for the rest of the month, then we will pay for three months of health insurance," said Wu.

Opendoor went public in late December 2020 after completing its merger with the SPAC Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings II.

The company was last valued at just $1.56 billion, down from a valuation of $8 billion in 2021.

Opendoor said it will offer job transition support and launch an opt-in talent directory to help departing team members connect with new opportunities.

The company last raised $300 million at a $3.5 billion pre-money valuation in March 2019.