The Information has confirmed that Fetch Rewards, a shopper rewards startup backed by SoftBank, laid off approximately 100 employees on Monday, which accounts for at least 10% of its workforce.
The Madison, the Wis.-based company, Fetch Rewards, had positioned itself as a solution for sellers grappling with rising digital marketing costs in the wake of Apple’s privacy restrictions. However, despite this approach, the company has not been shielded from the overall slowdown in retail spending, which has led to job reductions at major e-commerce players like Shopify and Amazon.
According to PitchBook, in March 2022, Fetch Rewards secured $240 million in equity and debt funding from investors such as SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, Greycroft Partners, and Yuri Milner’s DST Global, at a pre-money valuation of $2.4 billion. The company’s leadership had aimed to achieve profitability in 2023 and pursue an acquisition or IPO, rather than raising more funds, as per a source briefed on the plans.
