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Taxation jumped to a $1 billion valuation in 2022 on the back of a popular mobile app used by consumers to help with tax returns. But fast forward to 2023, the Berlin-based accounting startup is conducting an audit of its own affairs. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that Taxfix has laid off 20% of its staff (120 employees) as part of a broader business restructuring aimed at cutting costs.

The cuts were announced to staff on Tuesday. Deliberately, they come after Taxfix acquired a rival tax startup in the country, Steuerbot, a Stuttgart-based tax chatbot, a deal that was Announced two months ago.

“With the recent successful acquisition of Steuerbot by Taxfix, great synergies are created that allow us to increase efficiency considerably. Therefore, we made the strategic decision to restructure the organization,” a Taxfix spokesperson said in an emailed statement. Taxfix originally said it would operate Steuerbot as an independent and complementary subsidiary.

Taxfix had also been actively recruiting just before today’s news; Now, you no longer list open positions in the company on your own racing page so it seems that hiring is also frozen.

The sudden changes underscore the pressure startups face in today’s marketplace.

The most promising of these will have raised big rounds in recent years at the highest valuations in order to remain in so-called “growth mode”, intentionally remaining unprofitable and investing capital in their market and technology expansion.

But now, with the funding landscape depleted, many of the same startups are expected to pursue a variety of other courses: hold on to the cash they have, cut costs where they can, be prepared to take a hit to their valuations if they need to. increase (especially if they are not tightening their belts) and aim for profitability, all boxes that Taxfix now aims to check.

“The macroeconomic financing environment has changed in recent months and therefore it is more important than ever to position ourselves as an independent company for the long term. This implies an even stronger focus of business activities on sustainable growth and profitability,” the spokesperson said.

Taxfix did not comment on its current track, nor if it is currently trying to raise more money.

The last funding the startup raised was just over a year ago, in April 2022, when it closed a $220 million Series D at a valuation of over $1 billion, from an impressive group of investors that included Teachers’ Venture Growth (formerly the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board), Index Ventures, Valar Ventures, Creandum and Redalpine.

In more exciting times, you may have expected Taxfix to go the route of other high-flying unicorns: now it would have raised even more investors and capital at an even higher valuation to enter more accounting markets and categories. But these days, it seems like the stakes are high just to keep things running steadily on their own steam.