After Unacademy, popular edtech firm Vedantu lays off 200 employees

Another edtech company has laid off hundreds of its employees. Last month, popular edtech firm Unacademy fired 10 per cent of its workforce, which was around 600 employees. As per a report from Entrackr, another popular edtech startup Vedantu has laid off around 200 employees.

"We have over 6000 employees out of which ~120 contractors and 80 full-time or 3.5% of the total strength, are academics or assistant teachers were being reevaluated. We have an annual contract with them, and at the beginning of every academic year, we follow a process of load rebalancing where we rejig pertaining to these roles, based on our growth expectations," the company spokesperson said in an official statement. The spokesperson also said that Vedantu is looking to hire over 1000 employees in various departments including over 100 for similar positions.

Though Vedantu says that the process is a part of re-evaluation, several employees claim that the company served them pink slips without any prior notice. Several other companies like Unacademy, Meesho, Trell, among others also recently trimmed their workforce, possibly to extend their runway and conserve cash.

Unacademy last month laid off around 600 employees on account of non-performance and role redundancy, the company said. Commenting on the matter, an Unacademy spokesperson said, "based on the outcome of several assessments, a small subset of employees, contractor, and Educator roles were re-evaluated due to role redundancy and performance, as is common for any organization of our size and scale."

"The vast majority of roles impacted have been a result of that process, and the efficiency we aim to drive in the broader business. We have discussed and parted ways with the identified people, in accordance with their respective contracts," the spokesperson added.

A popular e-commerce platform also recently laid off more than 150 employees from its grocery business in a cost-cutting drive. Additionally, another edtech company Lido, social commerce platform Trell and bookkeeping startup OkCredit trimmed a significant chunk of their employee base this year. Back in March, furniture rental startup Furlenco also fired 180 employees.

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