EXCLUSIVE: upGrad-owned edtech start-up Harappa lays off 30% of its workforce

New year, old woes. India’s edtech sector continues to bleed as funds dry up and the appetite for online education wanes. Delhi-based higher-ed and skill-based learning platform Harappa Education, which was acquired for Rs 300 crore by Ronnie Screwvala’s upGrad last July, is the latest to take a hit. 

Harappa has laid off approximately 60 employees (or 30 per cent of its 200-strong workforce), according to people familiar with the development. The layoffs, which were announced in the last week of December, have primarily been in the content division. The affected employees have been told to serve a month's notice, and no other severance benefits have been offered to them. 

Harappa, meanwhile, is yet to tender any official reason for the firings. “This is the first phase of layoffs, and there could be more,” said a person in the know. “Team leaders have been told to communicate the decision to those fired,” they added. 

Business Today has reached out to both Harappa Education and upGrad for an official statement. The story will be updated with the same. 

Founded in 2018 by Pramath Raj Sinha (the Founding Dean of the Indian School of Business) and Shreyasi Singh, Harappa grew to 600,000 learners across B2B and B2C segments. Nearly 70 per cent of these users were acquired in the last 12 months. “We’ve grown our topline 3x to about Rs 75 crore this year, and are close to profitability. We’re the only player in India that is genuinely focused on creating its own content rather than distributing others' products,” Sinha had shared in an earlier conversation with Business Today. 

In November 2022, Harappa also announced its launch in the US, with plans to upskill 55,000 managers in three years. The platform claimed to have garnered 250,000 learners across 200+ companies in its enterprise division. “Job-linked upskilling is the future of lifelong learning for working professionals at every stage.  At Harappa, we have built this expertise over decades of rich experience. Our programmes, with their sharp blend of skills will make the right connect across the US,” Ronnie Screwvala, Co-founder & Chairperson, upGrad, said in a statement at the time. 

Whether the recent layoffs will hamper Harappa’s global expansion plans remains to be seen. 

The start-up joins a long list of Indian edtech companies that have laid off employees over the last 10-12 months. These include BYJU’S, Toppr, WhiteHat Jr, Unacademy, Vedantu, Practically, among others. A Tracxn report estimates that 7,000-8,000 employees have been fired by edtech start-ups in this period. Several players like Lido Learning, Udayy, Crejo.Fun, SuperLearn, etc., have also wound up operations due to continuing capital crunch and shifting consumer preferences. 

Meanwhile, India’s online higher education market, where upGrad and Harappa operate, is poised to grow to $5 billion by 2025, according to Redseer. It may not be the most battered segment like K-12, but challenges remain.