'Painful to see talented people leave us': Unacademy's Gaurav Munjal laments sacking 350 employees

Gaurav Munjal, CEO and co-founder, Unacademy, in a tweet on November 7, lamented the recent round of layoffs and said that it is painful to see some of his best people leaving the organisation. Unacademy, the SoftBank-backed edtech company, recently announced it would lay off 10 per cent of its workforce or about 350 employees amid the drying up of funds in the sector.  

In the same tweet, Munjal said that he is willing to help other companies in reappointing the laid-off employees. “If you are hiring in your organisation, please email me at gaurav@unacademy.com and we would send you the directory of the impacted roles,” he tweeted. 

On November 7, in an internal email sent to the employees, Munjal said that the company needs to keep optimising and building efficient systems for leaner and unprecedented times.  

"Around 10 per cent of Unacademy employees across the group will be impacted because of this, and if you are one of the impacted - you will be receiving a detailed communication within 48 hours from HR," he said. 

In April this year, Unacademy laid off nearly 600 employees from its different offices. Those asked to leave were mostly educators, tutors and contractual employees. 

Also read: Start-up funding picks up in October, but fintech and edtech struggle

Following this, in July, Munjal assured his employees in an internal email that the company would not exercise any more layoffs.  

In his recent note, Munjal apologised for the u-turn, and blamed prevailing market challenges, and harsh economic conditions for the decision to lay off employees. 

The note added: “We are no strangers to the harsh economic conditions that everyone is witnessing these days. These are very difficult times for the technology ecosystem. And things are getting worse with each passing day."

The Bangalore-based edtech unicorn reported a two-fold jump in its losses last fiscal (FY22). The company reported a loss of Rs 2,848 crore for the year 2021-22, with operating revenue of Rs 719 crore. The company's ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) costs had jumped to more than Rs 1,200 crore for the year, resulting in widening losses.