Meero (Founder-Driven Crisis)
Paris on-demand-photography unicorn Meero raised $293M at $1B valuation in 2019, then conducted brutal layoffs (80%+ of staff) in 2020-23 — a defining French unicorn meltdown.
2016 → 2023
$293M
Marketplace/Photography
France
Full Analysis
Paris-based Meero was France's photography-on-demand unicorn, valued at $1B after a $230M Series C in 2019. Aggressive global expansion across 100+ countries proved unsustainable. Multiple rounds of layoffs cut headcount from ~700 to under 100, the founder departed, and the company restructured to focus on AI-photo-editing software. A canonical French unicorn-meltdown case study.
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