Cybersecurity startup Snyk lays off 198 employees, or 14% of its staff, after laying off 30 people in July 2022; Snyk was valued at $8.5B in September 2021
Meir Orbach / CTech :
Context & Ripple Effects
Snyk's trajectory inverts fast: the developer-security firm raised $300M at an $8.5B valuation in September 2021, and by December sources said it was preparing for a mid-2022 IPO targeting a valuation above $8.6B. Instead, it cut 30 people in July and has now laid off 198 more — 14% of staff — with no IPO in sight.
The move lands amid a sector-wide retrenchment: two days after this report, Israeli peer Cybereason cut 200 employees (17%) after its own earlier reductions, following a US IPO filing that also stalled. Snyk's later $196.5M Series G at a $7.4B valuation confirmed the markdown from its 2021 peak.
First-order effects
- 198 Snyk employees lose their jobs in its second layoff round of 2022, and the mid-2022 IPO plan reported in December is effectively off the table at the company's prior $8.5B valuation.
- Snyk's burn rate drops sharply, buying runway but signaling to customers and recruits that its hypergrowth phase is over.
Second-order effects
- Cybereason's parallel 17% cut — 200 people, on top of ~100 in June — shows the layoffs are competitive necessity, not company-specific: every well-funded security startup must match peers' cost cuts or look undisciplined to late-stage investors.
- Down-round pressure spreads: Snyk's Series G at $7.4B sets a reference price that forces other 2021-vintage cybersecurity unicorns to either accept markdowns or raise on harsher terms.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the cybersecurity category built on open-source and cloud-native security demand reprices structurally: 2021's $8B+ private valuations become the ceiling, and IPO windows for this cohort shift from 2022 ambitions to an efficiency-first era where profitability, not ARR growth, gates public listings.
The trend: Venture-backed cybersecurity startups that raised at 2021 peak valuations are trading IPO timelines for deep layoffs and down rounds as late-stage capital reprices the sector.