Proptech Company Matterport To Cut 170 Jobs, Reduce Office Space

Matterport, a spatial data company headquartered in Silicon Valley, announced plans to reduce its workforce by 30%, or about 170 jobs, in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday.

The company makes 3D cameras that capture building interiors, allowing for virtual tours of real estate holdings, which became popular during the pandemic, among other uses. 

“We have made the difficult decision to eliminate certain roles across the company,” Matterport CEO RJ Pittman said in a blog post Tuesday. Pittman also said the company would look to reduce office space as part of its cost-reduction efforts. 

The company expects to pay between $4M and $5M for employee severance, office space exit charges and other costs in connection with its plans, according to the filing. Matterport expects to incur these charges by the end of the year.

Matterport maintains its headquarters in Sunnyvale and leases offices in San Francisco. The layoffs at the proptech company represent more bad news for the San Francisco Bay Area office market tacking against significant headwinds. 

Matterport’s stock price jumped at the news of the restructuring, rising about 7% on the Nasdaq. The company went public in 2021 through a merger with Gores Holdings VI Inc., a special-purpose acquisition company backed by billionaire Alec Gores. The deal infused $640M into Matterport.

Stay-at-home orders and social distancing requirements stemming from the pandemic caused a surge in demand for Matterport's products as commercial real estate brokers sought ways to offer tours remotely.

The company says it has more than 30B SF of the built environment digitized, allowing for real estate tours, digital analysis of construction projects and the ability to create digital models of factories and production facilities.