Katerra

How it happened

Katerra was a SoftBank-backed construction-technology startup that aimed to industrialize building with prefabrication and an end-to-end model, reaching a ~$4B valuation in 2018. Quality problems, cost overruns, and operational missteps drained capital despite large SoftBank investment. Employees called it a year early: Glassdoor reviews from mid-2020 reported unpaid factory rent and batch firings and predicted bankruptcy outright, while others described consumer-electronics executives running construction they didn't understand, a debut product that needed a ground-up redo, and "temporary" COVID pay cuts made permanent as work moved offshore. When it filed for bankruptcy in June 2021, staff got three days' notice and no severance — a near-total loss.

Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗. See our methodology.