Grover lays off employees to reach break-even point

Just this spring, the Berlin-based equipment rental company became a unicorn with a valuation of more than one billion euros. Now there have been layoffs.

Berlin-based equipment rental company Grover is laying off quite a few employees. This is reported by the Gründerszene. According to the report, it is at least 40 employees, or about ten percent of the workforce. This previously comprised about 460 people. The company itself did not comment on the specific figures. A limited reduction in the workforce was necessary because of the "realignment of targets for 2023".

The company now wants to break even. It was only in spring that Grover's valuation rose to over one billion euros. In a Series C financing round in April, the U.S. fund Energy Impact Partners, COI Partners from Frankfurt and a South Korean joint venture fund, among others, invested more than 100 million euros in the start-up. The company itself speaks of a total financing volume of 1.3 billion euros.

Grover benefited enormously from the Corona pandemic; according to its own figures, the number of customers doubled in 2022 alone. Founded in 2015, the company offers more than 5,000 products that customers in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States can rent via a platform.