Urban Ladder lays off 90 employees due to fund crunch

Furniture and decor retailer Urban Ladder has laid off nearly 90 employees in the March quarter this year. The key reason behind the layoffs is Urban Ladder's inability to raise more fund and its struggle to gain more profit. The inability to raise funds could largely be due to the new FDI rules in e-commerce.

This is the second time the Bengaluru-based company has resorted to job cuts after 2016 retrenchment.

"As an organisation, February and March were not easy months for us, as we are a company that deeply appreciates its employees. Having said that, after taking those tough calls, we are happy to know that the employees we did part ways with have used Urban Ladder as a great stepping stone to pursue other, great opportunities within the industry and beyond," Urban Ladder CEO Ashish Goel said.

The Ratan Tata backed company's headcount is down to 711 now, reported the daily. Earlier, the Sequoia Capital-backed firm had around 800 people across different centres, though most of them were located at its headquarters in Bengaluru.

Urban Ladder in its regulatory filing mentioned that the firm doubled its revenue to Rs 204.7 crore in FY18 from what was Rs 101.9 crore in FY17. And, it reported a loss of Rs 117.3 crore in FY18 against Rs 459.1 crore in FY17.

The company has raised total funding of Rs 744.7 crore to date from Sequoia, Steadview Capital, SAIF Partners, and Kalaari. At present, the home-decor brand is facing tough competition from Pepperfry and Swedish furniture major IKEA.

Also read: Urban Ladder to raise $40 million in new round of funding