Following its decision to “pause” Canadian operations back in December, cleaning services company Homejoy is completely ceasing its operations on July 31st.
In a report from Re/code, the company has been facing growth challenges, but the biggest factor in its decision to shut down were four lawsuits fighting over whether its workers should be classified as employees or contractors.
“A lot of this is unfortunate timing. The [California Labor Commission’s] Uber decision, it was only a single claim but it was blown out of proportion.” Adora Cheung, CEO of Homejoy, told Re/code.
The San Francisco-based company raised $38 million from Google Ventures, Redpoint Ventures and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin two years ago, and a few months later, chose downtown Toronto as its first international market.