Construction startup Katerra has told employees it plans to shut down, people familiar with the matter said, marking the collapse of the SoftBank-backed company that had raised more than $2 billion to slash the cost of building apartments.
Katerra is expected to let go of thousands of employees and is likely to walk away from dozens of construction projects it had agreed to build, one of the people said. The Information previously detailed Katerra’s six-year rise and near collapse last year, which included an investigation into the company’s accounting practices by its board and the Securities and Exchange Commission.