Lookiero plans layoffs nine months after €17.2M raise backed by public money
What's the deal? Lookiero Outfittery GroupDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the Bilbao-based online personal styling company, has started a restructuring that it says will affect roughly 10% of its workforce. The move comes nine months after the company announced a €17.2 million funding round.
The funding: Lookiero raised €17.2 million in January 2026, with €7.2 million coming from the Sociedad Española para la Transformación Tecnológica (SETT), a vehicle tied to Spain's central government. EkarpenDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, an investment firm backed by Basque institutions and financial entities, also took part.
The layoffs: The cuts were communicated to staff on October 6 via an urgent video call led by Oier Urrutia, according to internal sources. Those sources say the formal redundancy process could hit 35% to 40% of staff at Lookiero TechDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — the unit covering technology, product, customer service, marketing, and purchasing — or around 50 people.
The gap between figures reflects scope: the company cites 10% of the whole group, while sources refer only to Lookiero Tech.
The paradox: Lookiero says it remains EBITDA-positive but cannot sustain its current cost structure. In an internal document, the company states: "Despite having positive EBITDA, we face a financial paradox: we do not generate enough cash to sustain the current structure and meet our financial obligations" (translated from Spanish).
The text separates EBITDA from actual cash generation, which must also cover debt payments and investments — surfacing pressure on liquidity that had not featured in Lookiero's public messaging.
Why now? The company also points to artificial intelligence and its integration with Outfittery. "AI adoption is generating productivity gains, new capabilities, and ways of working that the organisation needs to adapt to," it told GananziaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, adding that integration synergies compound the effect.
Internal sources dispute that AI has yet eliminated actual roles, suggesting it is being used to justify the cuts — a claim that could not be independently verified.
The signal: Lookiero's case highlights a widening tension in tech restructurings: a profitable operating line is no longer enough when debt and financing obligations strain cash. It also raises questions about public money, with €7.2 million in state funding landing shortly before the company moved to shrink its team.
Read more: gananzia.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
