edtech unicorn supported by SoftBank In its third wave of layoffs in a year, Unacademy has let go 10% of its workforce, or around 350 workers. Unacademy cofounder and CEO Gaurav Munjal explained the need for cost-cutting measures in light of the challenging economic climate in an internal email distributed to the staff.
Unacademy cofounder and CEO Gaurab Munjal wrote to the staff in an internal email that the organization must continue to establish effective systems and optimize for leaner and more challenging times.
It is significant to note that Munjal pledged in a July internal memo to staff that there would be no additional layoffs. In the most recent email, the CEO expressed regret for his prior statement’s about-face.
“I want to apologize to everyone sincerely since we made a commitment of no layoffs in the organization but the market challenges have forced us to reevaluate our decisions. Funding has significantly slowed down and a large portion of our core business has moved offline.”
“We are no strangers to the harsh economic conditions that everyone is witnessing these days. These are very difficult times for the technology ecosystem. And things are getting worse with each passing day,” Munjal said in the email.
“I am deeply saddened to share that we will have to say goodbye to some of our extremely talented Unacademy employees to reduce the redundancies in our operations. These would be across the Unacademy group from verticals where we have to take a difficult decision either to scale down or shut,” Munjal added.
Employees who are impacted will be notified by human resources within 48 hours, according to Munjal, who also noted that those who are laid off will receive severance compensation equal to their notice term and an additional two months’ income.
Unacademy will also provide medical insurance coverage for an additional year as well as dedicated placement and career support.
“The next few days will be about helping the members who are leaving Unacademy and I would like to request all functions and teams to support this transition,” Munjal said.
Prior to this, after implementing a performance improvement plan, Unacademy let go of 150 staff in June. Along with a few contract workers, educators, and tutors, the corporation also let go of 600 to 800 members of its sales and marketing team in April.
Along with “restructuring” the company, Unacademy fired over 100 members of its PrepLadder staff in March. In 2020, the business paid $50 million for Chandigarh-based PrepLadder, a platform for preparing for post-graduate medical admission exams.
Indian firms working at the nexus of technology and education in recent months have let go of thousands of workers in an effort to reduce expenses and finally turn a profit as quickly as possible.
For instance, Byju’s, a competitor of Unacademy and the most valuable edtech company in India, is letting go of close to 2500 workers. Vedantu, another unicorn in the edtech industry, let more than 700 workers go in 2022.
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