The startup behind the food app Circus has laid off a total of 35 employees. The company gives various reasons for this – but a lack of capital is not one, according to a spokeswoman.
Last Monday, the Hamburg startup Circus Kitchens laid off a total of 35 employees. This affects 18 employees from headquarters and 17 employees in operations. The company announced this when asked by the start-up scene.
A company spokeswoman gave several reasons for the layoffs. On the one hand, the company decided to “temporarily stop operations in one of the three delivery areas in Hamburg” – which is why 17 employees had to go. Circus plans to offer customers a pick-up option in addition to delivery. This brings with it “new requirements for our kitchens and the associated restructuring in the operational teams,” said the spokeswoman. The company is currently looking for a “more suitable location” for the expanded concept.
Uncertain economic situation
For the layoffs at the headquarters, Circus again states the “current economic situation within the startup ecosystem”, which is “still characterized by uncertainty”. Circus continues to place “top priority on increasing its operational efficiency and quickly achieving profitability.” “That’s why we made the difficult decision to part with 18 employees at our headquarters.” That corresponds to around 25 percent of the local workforce, as the company Gründerszene confirmed.
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Circus denies rumors of a lack of capital: “After a very successful launch last year, we were able to secure seed financing of eleven million euros in November 2022. At the moment, we are not dependent on additional capital,” the company spokeswoman said.
Circus founder is no stranger
Circus Kitchens was founded by Nikolas Bullwinkel from Hamburg in August 2021. A few months earlier, just before Christmas 2020, he and co-founder Saad Saeed had their newly founded startup Pickery sold to the three Berliners Julian Dames, Christoph Cordes and Oliver Merkel. Together with the VCs Cherry Ventures and Northzone in the back, they wanted to build a competitor to the then much celebrated fast delivery service Gorillas. Bullwinkel was also involved in founding the delivery service Considerable involved.
Circus is also a delivery service, but for freshly cooked food Essen. The startup has been on the market since June 2022. Circus delivers food at peak times, i.e. on weekdays at noon and in the evening, on weekends only in the evening. The dishes can only be ordered via the app and cost at least six euros. The start-up operates a delivery kitchen for each location, and employed courier drivers bring the salads, pizzas and curries to the customers’ homes. A mix of fast delivery service and ghost restaurant. So far, Circus has only been active in Hamburg and Cologne.
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