Indian Startups Face Challenges in Raising Funds amid a Difficult Global Climate, Resulting in Impacts Over the Last 6 Months. In this article, We’ve listed Indian Startups and Tech companies that experienced layoffs in India 2023.
The start of 2023 has not brought relief to the start-up community as the funding drought continues amidst challenging global economic conditions. The public equity markets saw a decline in early 2022, due to the conflict in Ukraine, leading governments worldwide to implement anti-recession measures, including raising interest rates, making debt costly and causing a depletion of liquidity in both public and private equity markets.
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Following the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic recession resulted in mass layoffs across major technology companies globally, including in India where start-ups and tech firms were hit hard.
As of now, 71 start-ups have laid off 21,532 employees, including well-established companies such as BYJU’S, Chargebee, Cars24, LEAD, Ola, OYO, Meesho, MPL, Innovaccer, Udaan, Unacademy, and Vedantu.
The edtech sector has seen the largest number of layoffs, with 17 edtech startups collectively dismissing over 8,000 employees.
Byju's laid off 2500 of their employees
BYJU’S, a leading education technology company, recently announced layoffs affecting 2500 employees as part of a restructuring effort. The company stated that the decision to restructure was driven by the need to streamline operations and improve efficiency in a rapidly evolving market. While layoffs can be difficult for both the employees affected and the company, BYJU’S has stated that this move was necessary to ensure the long-term success of the business.
Restructuring can bring about positive change, allowing a company to focus on core competencies and allocate resources more effectively. It is important to note, however, that the impact of layoffs on employees should not be overlooked and companies should work to provide support and assistance to those affected.
Swiggy - laid off 380 employees
Swiggy, a leading food delivery company, recently laid off 380 employees as part of a broader effort to streamline operations and address challenges posed by the ongoing economic uncertainty.
Layoffs in India in 2023 can be a difficult and painful process, both for the employees affected and the company. However, in certain circumstances, restructuring can be necessary for a company to improve efficiency and stay competitive in a rapidly changing market.
Blinkit laid off 1600 employees
Sources familiar with the situation have reported that Zomato, a food delivery platform, may offer a loan ranging from $75-$100 million to assist the financially struggling quick commerce start-up, Blinkit. This assistance arrives as Blinkit has undergone layoffs, closed its dark stores, and postponed vendor payments, due to intense competition in the fast-paced commerce industry.
Unacademy fired 1500 employees till date
Unacademy laid off 1500 of their employees. Sources have reported that Unacademy has provided a two-month salary as part of the severance package for employees affected by layoffs in India. The company has offered extended medical insurance coverage until mid-July.
Vedantu cut off 1109 employees
Edtech unicorn Vedantu laid off around 1109 employees till now as part of a business restructuring process. According to sources, employees from various teams such as sales and training were affected by the latest round of layoffs at Vedantu.
his comes nearly a month after the company previously downsized by letting go of around 624 employees. According to Inc42’s layoff tracker, Indian start-ups have reduced their workforce by 11,460 individuals thus far in 2022.
GoMechanic laid off 500 employees
GoMechanic, an auto after-sales service startup that raised $42 million in funding, has reportedly laid off 70% of its workforce, according to former employees. The remaining employees have been instructed to work without pay for the next three months.
ShareChat had fired 500 employees
A Sharechat spokesperson confirmed the news, stating in a statement, “As a company, we have had to make some tough and painful decisions and had to say goodbye to approximately 20% of our highly skilled employees who have been with us on this startup journey.”
Dunzo laid off almost 100 employees
Reliance-backed quick commerce start-up laid off nearly 3% of its employees, following the closure of some of its dark stores for cost optimization. The company has joined the growing number of Indian start-ups that have downsized their workforce in response to the funding shortage and economic challenges of recent years.
ChargeBee fired 142 employees
Nine months after securing $250 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global and Sequoia, Chargebee has laid off 142 employees. According to the “Indian Startup Layoff Tracker” by Inc42, 44 Indian start-ups have downsized their workforce by 15,316 individuals thus far in 2022.
LEAD laid off 160 employees
Five months after previously cutting around 100 jobs, the edtech unicorn LEAD has carried out another round of layoffs. Despite a sharp increase in its standalone loss from INR 126 crore in FY21 to INR 397.1 crore in FY22, the company stated that the layoffs are a normal part of business operations and a typical 1-2% turnover in an organization of 2,000 people.
OYO fired almost 600 employees
According to reports, the layoffs primarily impacted the product and engineering teams, which will be consolidated moving forward. However, the company plans to increase its workforce by adding 250 employees, primarily in its relationship management team, in the near future. According to Inc42’s layoff tracker, Indian start-ups, including OYO, have reduced their workforce by 16,783 employees in 2022 due to the current funding climate. in India
Meesho laid off 450 employees
Meesho has discontinued operations for Meesho Superstore in all cities except for Nagpur and Mysore. This has resulted in a loss of jobs for approximately 300 on-roll and off-roll employees, a total of 450 employee layoffs in 2023. The decision to wind up operations was made due to the combination of low revenue and excessive cash burn.
Exotel laid off 80 employees
According to sources, a SaaS startup let go of 15% of its workforce after modifying its Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) policy. However, a company representative stated that 80 individuals were affected by the policy revision and company restructuring. In accordance with common industry practices, the startup did not offer any severance pay to employees terminated due to performance-related reasons.
80 employees laid off by Cashfree Payments
Cashfree Payments has undergone a restructuring exercise resulting in the impact of 6-8% (or 13% according to other sources) of its workforce. The company stated that the restructuring involved reevaluating the significance of specific roles and functions, leading to talent redistribution within teams and some employee departures. Last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) instructed the fintech company, which has been granted in-principle approval as a payment aggregator, to halt the onboarding of new merchants.
Udaan fired around 300-350 employees
In November of 2022, the business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce marketplace, Udaan, trimmed its workforce by retrenching 300-350 employees on the payroll, as well as a significant portion of its contracted workforce.
InMobi laid off 50-70 employees
SoftBank-backed InMobi has dismissed approximately 50 to 70 employees based on their performance metrics. According to an insider, the impacted staff were from both InMobi and its lock screen content provider, Glance. Despite this, the company has announced that it will forego salary increases for the current fiscal year and will only recruit new personnel as needed. The total headcount of the InMobi group is 2,600 employees. Read more here.
Cars24 - over 600 employees laid off
Marketplace for used cars Cars24 cut off their over 600 employees in May last year.
Ola cut-offs about 200 employees
Ola has laid off employees from its Cabs, Electric, and Financial Services divisions. The downsizing comes after the company decided to not proceed with its previous plans to eliminate 200 engineering positions. According to Ola, the layoffs are part of regular restructuring efforts aimed at enhancing efficiency.