Byju's is not the only start-up that has cut jobs this year, there are many other startups who have been forced to give the pink slips amid a crunch in late-stage funding.
Funding declined by a massive 80 per cent in Q3 2022 (July to September quarter) to $3 billion, compared to $14.9 billion in the same period in 2021, as per numbers revealed by industry tracker, Tracxn. As a result, start-ups are now forced to put profitability above “growth at all costs”. To make profitability the cornerstone of all their activities, several start-up founders have announced measures to reduce expenditure. Here’s a look at some of the others who are in the bandwagon. Ola Cab-hailing platform, Ola, announced last month that it will be laying off around 200 employees across different software teams of ANI Technologies, its parent company. These employees are said to be working on different aspects of the Ola app and the move has apparently come in the wake of the unicorn claiming that it is in the middle of a major restructuring exercise. It had laid off about 2,000 employees earlier this year amid plans to go for a stock market listing. Meesho Softbank-backed social commerce start-up Meesho laid off 150 employees in April this year from its grocery business division, a week after the company announced integration of the vertical with the main app and rebranding the same to Meesho Superstore. Some reports suggested that this number is actually around 300 as the grocery business stopped functioning in about 90 per cent of the cities. Vedantu Edtech firm Vedantu went for a second round of lay-offs in May this year. CEO of the company, Vamsi Krishna, said in an email to his staff that the company is laying off about 7 per cent or 424 employees out of the 5,900. This is the company’s second round of lay-offs in the same month as it had already announced the lay off of 200 employees. Unacademy Softbank backed edtech unicorn, Unacademy, laid off nearly 600 employees, constituting nearly 10 per cent of its employee base, top sources privy to the development told the Business Today in April. Sources added that those laid-off by the company mostly comprise educators/tutors and contractual employees.
Cars24 E-commerce platform for pre-owned cars, CARS24 fired close to 600 employees calling it ‘business as usual’ in May this year. “This is business as usual. It is a part of performance linked exits that happen every year. This is not owing to any cost cuts,” a Cars24 spokesperson said. The company has around 9000 employees, nearly 6.6 per cent out of which have now been let go of.