Tech company layoffs in Europe in 2023

Tech company layoffs hit European tech hard last year — a global trend that left more than 150k tech workers without a job, according to layoffs tracker layoffs.fyi.

Layoffs at tech companies came as founders and VCs shifted focus from growth at all costs and profitability became the word of the day. 

2023 is shaping up to be no different.

Below we list the layoffs that we know of so far in 2023 — and hope it helps any managers who are hiring to find new talent. Not all of the companies gave absolute numbers of employees laid off, so we have estimated based on the most recent LinkedIn headcount for the company. The estimated numbers are marked with an asterisk.

There is an Airtable with all the numbers at the bottom of this article.

October 2023

• Thought Machine — the cloud-based banking software provider confirmed to Sifted that it has laid off 8% of its workforce, mainly across sales and marketing. 
• Zego — the driving insurance startup is looking to sell its UK-based fleet business, affecting roles across its B2B and “central functions”. The company declined to confirm how many employees might be affected; one employee set to be made redundant told Sifted it would be around 50 people. 

September 2023

• Xolo — the Estonian business management services startup laid off 24 employees, equal to 18% of its workforce. 
• Eurora Solutions — the tax and customs startup laid off 111 employees globally, with 80 of the affected jobs based in Estonia. The company filed for bankruptcy in October 2023. 

August 2023

• Huma — the UK-based remote patient monitoring platform for pharma companies and medical providers announced in an internal email that it would be letting go of around 45 employees, nearly 10% of its workforce, amid a slowdown in revenues and a tough fundraising environment.
• DICE — the Softbank-backed UK event ticketing platform laid off staff in the summer; it’s reported to have let go of 30 employees.
• Getir — the Turkish speedy grocery delivery startup announced plans to cut 2.5k jobs across five countries, equal to around 11% of its total workforce.

July 2023

• Factorial — the HR startup let go of around a dozen employees as part of a restructuring of its product team, its founder Jordi Romero shared on X, which included replacing its chief product officer.

March 2023

• RDX Works — the decentralised platform for developers announced it would be cutting around 25% of its 100-odd workforce, focusing its layoffs “almost entirely” on business support teams rather than technical roles. 
• PayFit — the HR and payroll management platform unicorn confirmed with Sifted that it would be laying off 200 employees.
• Workhuman — Irish HR tech startup Workhuman was set to lay off 10% of its 1300 strong workforce, 600 of which work in its Dublin office. 
• Anyline — The Austrian AI startup cut one in four employees as part of a move to become cash flow positive.

February 2023

• OneFootball — Founder of the Germany-based football news app Lucas von Cranach announced in a statement that the company would be reducing its headcount from 470 employees to 320.
• Veriff — Estonian personal identification tech developer Veriff laid off 66 employees, around 12% of its workforce. 44 jobs at the company’s Estonian HQ were part of the cuts. 

January 2023

• Casavo — The Italian digital platform for selling and buying houses told Sifted that it would be laying off around 30% of employees (150-175 out of its 500 full-time employees) in order to focus on its core markets and target near-term profitability.
• X Shore — Swedish electric boat manufacturer X Shore laid off 10% of its employees in order to reach profitability quicker than originally planned. It raised a €50m late VC round in April 2022.
• Glovo — The Barcelona-based grocery delivery company laid off 6% of staff, amounting to 250 employees, after receiving a fine from the Spanish government for allegedly violating employment laws.
• Aiven — The cloud data startup is cutting 20% of jobs, which will affect all its global teams. Confirmed to Sifted by the VP of human resources.
• Brainly — The Polish edtech laid off 23 employees at the start of January, across its teams in Poland, Spain and the US. That’s after it cut almost all of its team in India at the end of 2022 — 25 people in total.
• Britishvolt — Failed UK gigafactory startup Britishvolt filed for administration on January 17, making 206 of its 232 staff t redundant with immediate effect, a spokesperson for EY — the auditor for the administration — told Sifted.
• Clue — The chief of staff at the period tracking app announced in a LinkedIn post the company had laid off 25% of its team. The cuts affect 25 of the startup’s 100 staff.
• Paddle — The payments startup cut 8% of jobs in early January. The layoffs were confirmed in a LinkedIn post by founder and CEO Christian Owens.
• Shares — Ben Chelma, the CEO and cofounder of the social investment platform, confirmed to Sifted that it was reducing its headcount by 10% globally, across all departments. He reiterated this doesn’t change the company’s focus on expansion, which will start with the EU.
• TIER — the German mobility startup confirmed to Sifted that it was cutting a total of 100 jobs, including approximately 70 roles from TIER and 11 from nextbike — the bike sharing company TIER acquired in 2021. Nineteen roles are also being cut from Spin — the former Ford-owned shared electric bike and scooter operate TIER acquired in 2022.

Tech company layoffs in 2023

This article was last updated on November 6 2023.

The main image for this article was used under Freepik’s free licence.