Indian education technology giant Unacademy is laying off around 250 employees, the latest in a series of job cuts the company is making after the pandemic lockdown was eased and schools across the country reopened.
The Bengaluru-based startup, which was valued at $3.4 billion in its last round of funding in 2021, plans to lay off 100 people across marketing, business and product departments and about 150 in sales, according to sources familiar with the matter. The cuts will bring Unacademy's total job cuts to about 2,000 from the second half of 2022 onwards.
A UAcademy spokesman confirmed the cuts but did not elaborate on how many people would be affected.
Unacademy said the restructuring was “necessary” to maintain its goal of reaching profitability. The startup is backed by General Atlantic, SoftBank and Peak XV, among others.
The cuts come amid merger talks with K12 Techno, which owns school chain Orchid International, two people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
Edtech companies across the globe saw a surge in business as students enrolled in courses in large numbers during the pandemic-induced lockdown. But as schools reopened, these companies saw a drop in enrolments. In particular, the sudden collapse of Byju's, once the country's most valuable startup, has shaken confidence in the sector to some extent.
Prosus, Byju's largest outside investor, reduced its 9.6% stake in Byju's to zero last month amid growing troubles and governance issues at the Indian company.
Unacademy, which offers online courses for India's most competitive exams, has been cutting costs and expanding its physical footprint and experiences for two years now. Last week, Unacademy co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal said on XThreads that “going offline” is a must for companies doing business in India.
He also said startups raised money at “excessive” valuations in 2021, adding: “This is not a market correction. This is reality. That was not the case in 2021.”
He also claimed that Bijoux failed because its founders “didn't listen to anyone.”
“He thought highly of himself and stopped listening to others. Don't do that,” Munjal wrote. “Never do that. Stop listening to everyone and find people who will give you honest feedback.”