On the surface, the late March acquisition of Komoot – a German route-planning platform popular with cyclists, hikers and runners – might have seemed unremarkable for those not embedded in the community. A successful app was absorbed by a bigger player, the kind of consolidation we've seen countless times in the tech industry.
But what followed the sale revealed a deeper fracture, not only in how these deals are executed but in how the very idea of company values can unravel – and how even a workplace that seems great from the outside always comes with compromises.
Komoot was bought by Bending Spoons, an Italian investment firm known for its aggressive acquisition playbook, which meant that the immediate fear was that Komoot would face the same destiny as many of the Italian company's acquisitions. Those fears proved true just days after the sale when that playbook kicked in. Around 80% of Komoot’s remote-first workforce – estimated at 150 people pre-acquisition – have now been let go.
For many, Komoot was a workplace synonymous with flexibility, autonomy, and purpose, but all that is now about to change. Escape Collective spoke to five former Komoot employees to understand what happened – and whether the company was always destined to choose this route or if things could have been different. Former employees interviewed for this story were granted anonymity to limit the risk of retaliation for speaking freely.
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