It just became known that the real estate startup McMakler for the third time in less than a year laid off employees on a large scale. This time 60 employees from different departments were made redundant – and this time McMakler boss Felix Jahn reported the mass layoffs himself.
The Berlin proptech, which helps homeowners sell their property, prepares valuations and brokers residential property through its own network of brokers, once had a good chance of becoming the next German unicorn. After its last round of financing of over 50 million in January 2022, investors valued the startup at around 800 million euros. This value could have halved in the meantime. Rising interest rates on loans and high construction costs continue to cloud the market prospects in the real estate industry. A good time to go?
Over a dozen former McMakler employees left the startup long before the crisis to set up their own business. Above all, there are the McMakler co-founders Lukas Pieczonka and Hanno Heintzenberg, who Dead body set up a fast delivery service for medicines in 2021.