Vietnamese startup invested by SoftBank lays off 50% of employees

John Le – founder and CEO of Propzy confirmed with TechInAsia that this real estate technology startup has laid off 50% of its staff starting September 2021 amid a restructuring of its business model. This information was first published in the newspaper DealStreetAsia.

According to CEO Propzy, most of the staff cut-off is in the “sales” department. The company is pushing to automate services using technology, so these positions are no longer needed. Le also said the company has recruited more staff to develop new products such as PropzyHome – modern townhouses selected and redesigned by the company.

John Le is the founder and CEO of Propzy. Photo: Propzy

Prior to that, Propzy positioned itself as an end-to-end platform, providing a secure environment for buying, selling and renting real estate. In 2020, Propzy raised $25 million in a Series A round led by Gaw Capital Partners and SoftBank Ventures Asia. Other investors include Next Billion Ventures, RHL Ventures, Breeze, FEBE Ventures, RSquare and Insignia.

According to the introduction on Propzy’s website, founder John Le is Vietnamese-American. He graduated in Mathematics and Statistical Science from the University of California (UCLA) and has worked in many large banks. After returning to Vietnam many times, John Le decided to establish Propzy in 2015. As of June 2020, this company has raised 37 million USD.