Indian edtech giant Unacademy is laying off about 250 employees, the latest in a series of layoffs since the reopening of schools across the country after the pandemic.
The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, valued at $3.4 billion in its last funding in 2021, is cutting 100 jobs in core roles (marketing, business and product) and about 150 in sales, according to a source familiar with the situation. This new round of layoffs means that Unacademy will have cut about 2,000 jobs since the second half of 2022.
An Unacademy spokesperson confirmed the layoff but didn’t elaborate on how many individuals were impacted.
The restructuring exercise has been “necessary” to stay on the startup’s goal of reaching profitability, said Unacademy, which counts General Atlantic, SoftBank and Peak XV among its backers.
The layoffs come at a time when Unacademy is in discussions with K12 Techno, the parent firm of school chain Orchid International, for a possible merger, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Edtech firms globally boomed during the pandemic lockdowns, but have been facing declining enrollments as schools return to in-person classes. In India, the edtech industry is facing another setback: the sudden collapse of Byju’s, once the country’s most valuable startup.
Prosus, the largest external investor of Byju’s, reported last month that it had written down its 9.6% stake in Byju’s to zero amid growing troubles and governance issues at the Indian firm.
Unacademy, which offers online courses for India’s most competitive exams, has been cutting costs for two years while also expanding into offline centers and experiences. Gaurav Munjal, co-founder and chief executive of Unacademy, said in a X thread last week that an “offline play” was must for businesses building for India.
He also quipped that the valuations at which startups raised capital in 2021 were “bloated.” He added: “This is not market correction. This is the reality. 2021 wasn’t.”
He also alleged that Byju’s failed because its founder “didn’t listen to anyone.”
“He put himself on a pedestal and stopped listening. Don’t do that,” Munjal wrote. “Never do that. Don’t listen to everyone but have people who can give you blunt feedback.”
