BeReal hit by layoffs following Voodoo acquisition

• The layoffs come just week after becoming part of hypercasual and hybridcasual games publisher Voodoo
• BeReal COO Romain Salzman wrote on LinkedIn that the company was looking to “re-focus on France/Europe-based talents”

Around 28 staff at photo-sharing app maker BeReal have been hit by layoffs just weeks after the acquisition of the company by hypercasual and hybridcasual games publisher Voodoo.

BeReal COO Romain Salzman wrote on LinkedIn that the company was looking to “re-focus on France/Europe-based talents”.

The layoffs hit an array of roles including a number of iOS and Android engineers, backend engineers, QA and marketing. A document shared by Salzman shows 28 staff impacted by the layoffs.

According to Business Insider, BeReal had a headcount of 60 earlier this year.

“Not going to bore with details, keeping it simple here: these folks scaled a social platform from 200,000 to 25 million daily active users in 18 months,” said Salzman.

“Whether they worked in growth, engineering, custom support, trust & safety - they all had to build it from the ground up and under tremendous pressure, and did it.”

In a statement to PocketGamer.biz, a Voodoo spokesperson said it had cut staff to focus on growing BeReal in a "sustainable way".

Pre-deal uncertainty

BeReal was acquired by Voodoo last month in a deal said to be worth up to €500 million ($537m) in cash and earnouts. Sifted reported that €166m was paid up front.

A source told PocketGamer.biz that the total enterprise value of the deal was €500m but did not clarify specifics of the deal.

Business Insider reported earlier this year that the future of BeReal was “uncertain” as growth of the app was said to have stalled. The company had previously raised $30m in a Series A round and $60m in Series B investment.

Sources familiar with the matter claimed that $90m in funding was set to run out this year. During an all-hands meeting in February, it was reported company executives told employees it had 10 months of runway left. Options included a series C funding round and a sale.

Voodoo ultimately stepped in with a deal to buy the company. The games publisher said it plans to invest further into the company while providing expertise in product strategy, growth and infrastructure.

It added it would “further innovate around new features and refocus on growth through organic and paid marketing across markets”.

BeReal’s CEO  Alexis Barreyat has been ousted as CEO, with Aymeric Roffé, CEO of another Voodoo-owned social media app Wizz, set to take the reins.

BeReal userbase

In a release, Voodoo claimed BeReal had more than 40m active users, though did not clarify whether these were daily, weekly or monthly. It said at least half of those users engage with the app six days per week.

Business Insider sources claimed earlier this year that BeReal’s users stood at 25m daily active users and 40m monthly active users.

At the time of the acquisition, Appfigures estimates put total downloads of the app at 109m.