Indian edtech Unacademy cuts 10% of jobs

Unacademy has eliminated 10% of its workforce, or about 350 roles, in its second round of layoffs this year as the Indian edtech warns of harsh economic conditions.

In an email to employees on Monday, Unacademy co-founder and chief executive Gaurav Munjal said the startup is cutting jobs across several verticals, many of which it is either scaling back or shutting down.

“I want to apologize to everyone sincerely since we made a commitment of no layoffs in the organizations,” he wrote in the email, seen by TechCrunch.

“But the market challenges have forced us to reevaluate our decisions. Fund has significantly slowed down and a large portion of our core business has moved offline,” he added.

The Bengaluru-headquartered Unacademy, valued at $3.4 billion, cut 1,000 full-time and contractual roles in April this year.

“This decision has not been easy and I take complete responsibility. You have contributed immensely to the success of Unacademy and the team will always be indebted to you. There is no easy way to do this and this is definitely not the kind of separation I would have had wanted. We will do our greatest to help everyone in these difficult times,” he said, adding that those leaving the firm will get severance pay equivalent of their notice period and of additional two months, accelerated one year of vesting period and medical Insurance coverage for additional one year.

Unacademy has been undertaken several cost-cutting measures in recent quarters as it rushed to improve its finances and cut several experimental businesses.  In June this year, Munjal said that he and other founders will take a pay cut and shut down “certain businesses.”

Edtech firms are among the most impacted startups in the current market downturn. Online learning platform Byju’s, India’s most valuable startup, has also announced plans to cut thousands of jobs this year. The startup has also postponed its IPO plans, but it is looking to list its offline subsidiary, Aakash, at a valuation of over $3.5 billion, TechCrunch reported last week.

(More to follow)