Rocket Internet apparently lays off employees

The wave of layoffs at startups has now reached investors.

Private equity firm Rocket Internet is apparently to downsize its global team, as Finance Forward reported. Months ago, founder Oliver Samwer is said to have warned his portfolio companies about the poor economic situation, comparing it to the 2008 financial crisis. Now there are said to have been layoffs at his fund Global Founders Capital and early-stage investor Flash Ventures. At the Global Founders Capital fund, more than one-third of the employees are likely to be laid off. At Flash Ventures, it would be half of all employees. The investment company has offices in Berlin, the USA and China. It is not known which offices are affected by the layoffs.

As the Gründerszene reports, the dismissed employees are said to be especially young employees from the investment team. This would have communicated a source from the closer company environment. In the future, Samwer would want to rebuild the organizational structure and rely more on experienced investment managers.