upGrad lays off 120 employees in second round of job cuts: Report

Edtech unicorn upGrad has laid off 120 employees, which is almost 30 per cent of the total workforce, at its subsidiary that was acquired in 2021.

This is the second round of layoffs at the Ronnie Screwvala-run edtech. According to Financial Express, the job cuts are an attempt to cut costs at the subsidiary, Impartus Innovations, which was bought for Rs 150 crore in a cash and stock deal.

This comes almost two months after Business Today reported about upGrad's other subsidiary laying off about 30 per cent of its workforce in December. Harappa sacked approximately 60 employees of its total 200 employees.

This is also a time when Indian Edtech industry is struggling to weather the ongoing tech winter. A Tracxn report has estimated that 7,000-8,000 employees have been fired by edtech start-ups in this period, including, BYJU’S, Toppr, WhiteHat Jr, Unacademy, Vedantu, Practically. Several players like Lido Learning, Udayy, Crejo.Fun, SuperLearn, etc., have also wound up operations due to continuing capital crunch and shifting consumer preferences. 

upGrad has been founded by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar and Phalgun Kompalli. The Edtech has managed raised over $600 million from Temasek, Bharti Enterprises and Bodhi Tree, among others, and is currently valued at around $2.2 billion. 

In January, its chief executive officer Arjun Mohan stepped down from his position. In a LinkedIn post, he said, "I have decided to move out of upGrad after almost 3 years of service as the CEO India business. My last day of employment will be 15th Jan."

The company operates out of 30 offices in India across 10 cities. Outside of these, its global offices are located across San Francisco, New York, Washington, London, Singapore, Dubai, Jakarta, Vietnam, Sydney, Melbourne, and Nairobi.
 

Read: upGrad CEO Arjun Mohan quits amid growth-related challenges in the company