Seattle-based home inspection startup Inspectify has laid off 16 employees, co-founder and CEO Josh Jensen confirmed to the Business Journal on Wednesday.
The company has 51 employees remaining after the cuts, Jensen added. The layoffs come amid rising interest rates and a cooling housing market.
Jensen said in an email to the Business Journal the layoffs were "unfortunately due to the broader economic slowdown we are seeing in our key industries including real estate and capital markets. While we remain bullish on the outlook of our business, we needed to right-size the organization for the current climate we find ourselves in."
Inspectify, founded in 2019, helps home buyers find inspectors through its marketplace. Inspectors, meanwhile, can join the platform to gain more business. Users can also access standardized inspection reports with customizable data.
Inspectify raised an $8 million Series A round in November 2021. Nine Four Ventures led the Series A round, while Redfin and Tushar Garg, co-founder and CEO of Seattle-based real estate tech company Flyhomes, participated. According to his LinkedIn page, Jensen spent more than a year at Flyhomes as vice president of operations before founding Inspectify.
Local real estate tech companies have faced serious headwinds recently. Flyhomes laid off roughly 20% of its staff in July before laying off an undisclosed number of employees earlier this month. Seattle-based Redfin, meanwhile, laid off about 470 employees in June and about 862 employees earlier this month. The company said it has reduced its headcount by 27% since April through layoffs and attrition. Redfin is also shuttering its home-flipping service, RedfinNow, in which Redfin buys homes directly from consumers, renovates them and sells them for a profit.
Seattle-based Zillow in November 2021 announced the shuttering of its home-flipping service, Zillow Offers, in a move that took several quarters and resulted in laying off about 25% of its staff. The company laid off an additional roughly 300 employees last month.
