Startup HomeLight Cuts 19% of Staff After Raising $60M

The recent string of real estate-industry layoffs continued Wednesday, with staffers at proptech unicorn HomeLight the latest victims.

The San Francisco-based startup, which raised $60 million at a $1.7 billion valuation just two weeks ago, laid off 19 percent of its employees, Inman reported.

In a LinkedIn post, HomeLight said the cuts were aimed at making sure the company had sufficient capital “to operate independently, regardless of the environment or market around us.”

The referral platform, which facilitates contingency-free, cash home deals, has raised about $645 million in equity financing since its founding a decade ago. It said it’s providing severance and job support to affected staffers and invited other employers to contact it for referrals — a small comfort to staffers who earlier this month were celebrating another fundraising round led by Zeev Ventures and an acquisition of online lender Accept.inc.

Instead, the company finds itself in the same situation as many other real estate companies as mortgage rates rise and demand sinks. Companies exposed to the mortgage sector have been hit particularly hard by layoffs in recent weeks.

JPMorgan cut hundreds of staffers from its home-lending business last week. Digital mortgage lender Tomo laid off a third of its staff a month ago, and Better.com has shed thousands of workers since March.