Indian edtech Unacademy fires 10% of its workforce

Acquah Nana Yeboah -

Indian online learning platform Unacademy, has slashed 10% of its workforce in its second round of layoffs this year, citing harsh economic conditions.

  • The Bengaluru-headquartered Unacademy, valued at $3.4 billion said the job cut affected 350 roles out of its 3500 people workforce across several verticals, many of which it is either scaling back or shutting down.
  • In April, Unacademy fired about 1,000 full-time and contractual roles and has undertaken several cost-cutting measures in recent quarters as it rushed to improve its finances and cut several experimental businesses.
  • Unacademy, which is backed by Sequoia India, Tiger Global and SoftBank, said it will provide those leaving the firm with severance pay that is equivalent of their notice period and of additional two months, accelerate the vesting period of their stock by one year and bankroll medical insurance coverage for one year.
  • In an email to employees, co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal apologized for the decision to let go staff "since we made a commitment of no layoffs in the organizations," and cited market challenges as reasons for the decision.