- Indian startups have already laid off just over 11,000 people in the past six months.
- Things could get worse, as experts expect 60,000 jobseekers to lose their jobs this year.
- Ecommerce companies led the way in the layoff season, while edtech was in second place.
Indian startups have laid off just over 11,000 in the past six months as capital flow is expected to remain dry for the next 18-24 months. Things could get worse in the near future, as experts predict 60,000 job-starters could lose their jobs this year.
A back-of-the-envelope calculation conducted by https://londonbusinessblog.com/ India found that 25 startups in the country have laid off 11,615 people since January this year. About 10 of these startups were in the ecommerce space and seven were from edtech.
Seven unicorn startups — Ola, Blinkit, Unacademy, Vedantu, Cars24 and Mobile Premier League (MPL) — were also part of the shooting list. Notably, Blinkit (formerly known as Grofers) was a unicorn when the layoffs were made, but the company lost its $1 billion valuation during its acquisition of Zomato.
| To start | Sector | laid off | Rode |
| ola | E-commerce | 2.100 | restructuring |
| blinkit | E-commerce | 1600 | Cost reduction |
| Whitehat Jr | Edtech | 1,300 | Cost savings, employees asked to resign if they can’t go back to the office |
| learn lido | Edtech | 1200 | Financial restrictions |
| Unacademy | Edtech | 925 | Cost reduction |
| Vedantu | Edtech | 624 | Cost reduction |
| Cars24 | E-commerce | 600 | Cost reduction |
| Mfine | health technology | 600 | Financial restrictions |
| trellis | E-commerce | 400 | Cost reduction |
| top price | Edtech | 300 | Cost reduction |
| FarEye | SaaS | 250 | restructuring |
| rupee | fintech | 200 | Cost reduction |
| furlenco | E-commerce | 200 | Cost reduction |
| City shopping center | E-commerce | 191 | Cost reduction |
| Udaan | B2B e-commerce | 180 | Cost reduction |
| Meesho | E-commerce | 150 | restructuring |
| Yaari | E-commerce | 150 | Financial restrictions |
| First row | Edtech | 145 | Cost reduction |
| MPL | Gaming | 100 | restructuring |
| Udayy | Edtech | 100 | Shut down |
| Aqgromalin | Agritech | 80 | Financial restrictions |
| Nova | fintech | 70 | restructuring |
| Yojak | B2B e-commerce | 60 | restructuring |
| Breathe well-being | health technology | 50 | Financial restrictions |
| OkCredit | fintech | 40 | Cost reduction |
| Total | †| 11,615 | †|
Source: Media Releases, Company Announcements
One in five start-up workers laid off this year worked for Ola
One fifth of the total number of affected workers was associated with ride-hailing giant Ola.
In April 2022, Olac laid off 2,100 contract workers brought on board to man the company’s dark shop. It decided to massively restructure its high-speed trading company Ola Dash, which led to these layoffs. It closed Ola Dash last week, along with used car division Ola Cars. The number of workers affected by these closures has not yet been disclosed.
Blinkit, which was acquired by Zomato last week, also laid 1,600 in March. The world’s most highly regarded edtech company Byju’s also cut 600 jobs at WhiteHat Jr and Toppr. Whitehat Jr also asked 1,000 employees to resign if they can’t go back to the office.
Things are not as rosy for the Indian startup ecosystem as they were last year. The segment that thrived during the pandemic is now hardest hit by the war between Russia and Ukraine, which led to inflation and liquidity shortages, which eroded startups’ ability to raise capital. The investors are becoming more selective and tighter.
“Currently, the external environment is tough. War in Europe, looming recession fears and Fed rate hikes have led to inflationary pressures with a massive correction in equities worldwide and also in India. Given this environment, capital will be scarce in the coming quarters,” said Vamsi Krishna, chief executive officer and co-founder of Vedantu.
Disclaimer: The previous version of the article stated that 11,315 startups have been laid off this year. The article has been updated to reflect 600 employees who have been laid off by Byju’s.
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