- Better.com is slated to lay off about 4,000 workers this week, TechCrunch reported.
- TechCrunch cited "sources familiar with internal happenings at the company."
- The online mortgage company laid off 900 workers in December.
Three months after firing 900 workers via a Zoom call, mortgage company Better.com is slated to lay off roughly 4,000 people – about half of its employees, TechCrunch reported, citing "sources familiar with internal happenings at the company."
During the pandemic, the company saw enormous increases in customers looking for online options, especially low interest rates made that process more appealing. The company raised $500 million from SoftBank in April 2021, pushing its valuation to $6 billion.
But as interest rates have gone up, the environment has become more challenging for the company. Like Peloton, Better.com grew massively amid a set of pandemic-era conditions that changed abruptly, leading both to lay off workers.
TechCrunch was the first to report last month that new layoffs were imminent. The sources also told the outlet that the date of the new layoffs were moved around because executives were unhappy with the date being leaked.
According to a memo Insider reviewed, Better.com CEO Vishal Garg took time off after the layoff made in December, and a third party was planned to be brought into the company for a "a leadership and cultural assessment" and the results used to "build a long-term sustainable and positive culture at Better."
Garg also said in a meeting after the layoffs that the company had overhired people, lost $100 million the prior quarter, and that cutting down staff would, lead to "Better 2.0" with " a "leaner, meaner, hungrier workforce" per a video snippet of the meeting given to Insider.
High-level executives also resigned after the first round of layoffs, TechCrunch reported.
After the December layoffs, an employee described to Insider the environment for those who remained.
"There was absolutely no warning, and in the aftermath, Garg belittled the laid-off workers to the rest of us and told us there would be no second chances from now on. The whole thing was demoralizing," they said.
"Since the layoffs, everyone has been on edge. We're all looking behind our backs, expecting to get fired next. It's not a healthy environment."
Better.com didn't respond to a request by Insider for comment.