The $4.5 billion startup Zenefits has lost half of its value after missing sales goals

It took less than two years for Zenefits to become one of the hottest startups in Silicon Valley, raising more than $500 million at a $4.5 billion valuation.

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%.

Read the full report here>>