Selina Beit Oren, Israel
Israeli hospitality company Selina is in big trouble. The company has seen its shares drop 96% since it first went public back in October of 2022 with a 41% one day drop last Friday. And fellow Israeli company StreamElements, a startup that offers interactive tools to help companies manage communities and create revenue for streaming content creators, is also in trouble announcing the laying off of 35% of the firm’s workforce, or about 60 people.
StreamElements already let go of dozens of people in June.
The company cited what it called “challenging market conditions” along with the slowdown in the advertising market that persisted in the last quarter as reasons for the move. “Despite the increase in advertising budgets from new clients, it did not offset the reduction in advertising budgets from existing clients. Consequently, to ensure the company’s readiness for sustainable growth, while aiming for profitability and eliminating the necessity for future external funding, we find ourselves compelled to implement various changes, including additional workforce reductions,” StreamElements said in a statement. “
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Founded in 2017 by Or Perry, President Doron Nir, CEO Gil Hirsch and CTO Reem Sherman, StreamElements offers an end-to-end platform for livestream and video on demand production. The company monetizes audience engagement, brand sponsorships, and influencer marketing. StreamElements boasts the only full stack of 100% cloud-based tech and business solutions. They have offices in Los Angeles, Palo Alto and Tel Aviv.
As for Selina, the company had already been suffering from problems. At the end of June the firm announced that it was closing offices and laying off 350 people.
At that time, Rafael Museri, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Selina, said that the company was working to “streamline operations, curtail expenses, and enhance unit economic.”
Founded in 2014 by Daniel Rudasevski and Rafael Museri, Selina says it was built to address the needs of Millennial and Gen Z travelers, blending beautifully-designed accommodation with coworking, recreation, wellness, and local experiences. Custom-built for today’s nomadic traveler, Selina provides guests with a global infrastructure to seamlessly travel and work abroad. But its business model seems to not be practical.
For 2022 Selina revealed a $725 million deficit against just $184 million in revenues. In October 2022, Selina completed an SPAC merger at a valuation of $1.2 billion. But now the company has a market cap of just $130 million. So, Selina seems like a WeWork knockoff, and, like WeWork, may very well be just a house of cards.
