The $4.5 billion startup Zenefits has lost half of its value after missing sales goals
But a new report by The Wall Street Journal's Rolfe Winkler suggests the company may be failing to reach its sales goals and lofty expectations - leading mutual fund investor Fidelity to mark down the value of its investment in the company by nearly half in September, which implies a $2.34 billion valuation.
The report says Zenefits is also on a hiring freeze, after growing its headcount from roughly 500 to 1,640 in a single year. It's also allegedly cut pay of some of its employees, which led at least 8 executives to leave the company.
Zenefits has said it's expecting to hit $100 million in revenue by January, but the report said the number was only at around $45 million in August, and that it'll be difficult for the company to hit its sales goals, citing an anonymous source.
Zenefits is the latest example of a troubled "unicorn," or startups valued at $1 billion or more. Just this week, it was reported that Fidelity wrote down the value of its stake in Snapchat by 25% in September, while The Information reported last month that mutual investors had cut the value of their holdings in Dropbox by 20%.