Udaan, a business-to-business unicorn, is laying off up to 350 employees in its second round of layoffs since June, as the startup seeks to improve efficiency and profitability.
According to a source close to the situation, the layoff will affect about 10 per cent of the company’s 3,000 permanent employees. Previously, in June, the company fired 180 executives as part of its cost-cutting efforts.
With this, Udaan joins a long list of startups that have had to lay off workers in order to prioritise profitability in the face of a funding slowdown.
The figure could be as high as 30% of its workforce, or around 1,000 people. However, the person mentioned above stated that while 300-350 of those fired were on the company payroll, the remainder were most likely on contract.
However, the company did not provide information on the severance packages offered to current employees. Aditya Pande, Udaan’s chief financial officer, informed employees last week in an internal email that the company had raised $120 million (approximately Rs 960 crore) in convertible notes and debt, led by existing shareholders and bondholders. Udaan’s total capital raised through convertible notes and debt in the last four quarters now exceeds $350 million.
The company has raised more than $1.5 billion in equity and debt so far. The startup also intends to go public within the next 12-18 months.
Udaan was founded in 2016 by former Flipkart employees Amod Malviya, Sujeet Kumar, and Vaibhav Gupta. It brings traders, wholesalers, retailers, and manufacturers together on a single platform to find clients, suppliers, and products across categories and connect with one another directly for the best price.
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