Better.com, the company that laid off over 900 employees over a Zoom call
Image credit: The Independent
During a Zoom call last week, Vishal Garg, the CEO of Better.com, fired nearly 900 employees. According to Garg, the firings were due to market efficiency, performance, and productivity.
Better.com was founded in 2014 to enhance house mortgages and financing by allowing consumers to apply for loans and financing online instead of going to banks. The organisation offers fixed and adjustable-rate loans for conventional and jumbo loans for a variety of properties without incurring a fee.
The organisation has swiftly grown its footprint over the years, partnering with a variety of businesses in the process.
Better Mortgage changed its name to Better Mortgage in 2016 and received $30 million in Series A funding. Fannie Mae approved the same entity as a seller or servicer. The startup secured $15 million in Series B funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers a year later, and $160 million in Series C funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 2019.
The layoffs come only days after the firm announced that it had raised $750 million in new funding from two of its investors, Aurora Acquisition Corporation and SoftBank. The firm also intends to go public via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) soon.
Kevin Ryan, the company’s chief financial officer, said in a statement that “the company needs a fortress balance sheet and a limited and focused workforce to play offence heading into a drastically altering housing market.”
Meanwhile, Garg accused the workers of stealing from their coworkers and clients by being inefficient and working barely two hours per day.
During the epidemic, Better.com provided a stipend of Rs 10,000 per month to its employees in India as a COVID-19 benefit, in addition to compensating them for additional expenses related to their work-from-home setup. The majority of the company’s back-end operations are based in India. While the corporation has not acknowledged the geographical breakdown of the layoffs, there are reports that numerous individuals in India have also been laid off.
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