Radical change of course at Tier Mobility: The Berlin mobility start-up announced on Tuesday that it would lay off around 180 employees. This means that almost every sixth job at the e-scooter, e-bike and e-moped rental company will be eliminated. Tier cited economic constraints as the reason. Instead of further expansion, the focus is now on profitability. The company joins a whole ranks of start-ups who have recently slashed their workforce. In the direct competitive environment, Voi and Bird, for example, used this method.
Tier recently drove a massive expansion course, within a few months the Berliners with Makery, Wind Mobility, next bike, Spin and Fantasmo Studios acquired five companies. Tier had previously raised a total of over $660 million from well-known investors such as Softbank and Mubadala Capital, and the start-up’s valuation had climbed up to $2 billion.
But that was not enough to be able to continue to push through your own agenda. In a statement, founder and CEO Lawrence Leuschner (40) explained that the “scarcity in the financing market” made fundamental changes necessary to secure the future of the company.
Leuschner also announced that it would stop all projects “that are currently not clearly on the way” to being in the black. It was initially unclear which activities were involved in detail.
Further expansion into new markets has also been halted for the time being. Tier is currently active in over 250 cities in 22 countries. The focus has so far been on Europe and the Middle East, but Tier also wanted to gain a foothold in North America through the takeover of the former Ford subsidiary Bird.
Leuschner and his management team want to explain to their employees next week how the start-up will continue in detail.