Better.com plans another round of layoffs in India and US

In a mail to employees, the company’s Chief Financial Officer and Interim President Kevin Ryan wrote: “As you know, the residential real estate market has been changing rapidly, and our entire industry is facing a dramatic drop in origination volume due to rising interest rates. It is clear — after careful, comprehensive review — that we will need to do more to ensure a strong path forward for the company…Unfortunately, that means we must take the difficult step of streamlining our operations further and reducing our workforce in both the US and India in a substantial way”.

The company, founded by Indian-origin Vishal Garg, had over 2,000 employees in India out of its total strength of 8,000 but it was unclear how many of those being laid off were in India. A query sent to Better.com elicited no response at the time of publishing.

Ryan wrote in his mail that affected employees will be eligible for a minimum of 60 working days — and as much as 80 working days — of cash severance payments.

Started in 2016, Better.com works on “improving house mortgaging” and financing by allowing people to apply for loans and financing online, instead of them having to go directly to banks. The company claims to offer loans at fixed and adjustable rates for conventional and jumbo loans for several types of homes without charging any commission.

In December last year, Garg fired 900 people over a Zoom call citing market efficiency, performance and productivity.

The company had hired 1,100 people in India across tech and analyst roles since April 2020. It had announced on-boarding people who were laid off from the hospitality industry. At the time, however, US-based mortgage lending companies were on an aggressive hiring spree globally on account of a surge in demand for mortgage products and subdued interest rates.

During the pandemic, Better.com also paid its employees in India a stipend of Rs 10,000 a month as Covid19 benefit, in addition to paying them for incurring additional expenses for their work-from-home setup.

Since its inception, the company has raised over $900 million in funding, of which $500 million was raised from Softbank in April 2021, months before the first round of firings.