Sonder Holdings

In 2012, to earn extra money, Francis Davidson, a student at McGill University, began subletting his own apartment and managing apartments of out-of-town students in the summers.In 2014, Davidson and Lucas Pellan founded Flatbook, later renamed Sonder, and brought the company to FounderFuel, a startup accelerator in Montreal.In 2019, Sonder announced projects in Dallas, Denver, Miami, New York City, and Philadelphia.In March 2020, Sonder laid off 400 employees, one-third of its staff, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later that year, the company rehired some people who had been laid off. By June 2020, the company had raised over $550 million and was valued at $1.3 billion.In January 2021, the company announced a planned expansion in Quebec, including hiring 700 employees there over the next five years. Sanjay Banker was named president of Sonder, in addition to his role of CFO, and Satyen Pandya was named CTO. In April 2021, Sonder reopened the Flatiron Hotel in Manhattan in April 2021, after signing a lease for the property in 2019.In January 2022, the company became a public company via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company. Also in January 2022, the company signed agreements to operate three properties in Washington, D.C. In June 2022, it was announced that the company would eliminate 21% of corporate roles and seven percent of frontline roles. Among those laid off was the company's CTO.