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Tag: gaurav munjal

  • ‘Painful to see talented people leave us’: Unacademy’s Gaurav Munjal laments sacking 350 employees

    ‘Painful to see talented people leave us’: Unacademy’s Gaurav Munjal laments sacking 350 employees

    Gaurav Munjal, CEO and co-founder, Unacademy, in a tweet on November 7, lamented the recent round of layoffs and said that it is painful to see some of his best people leaving the organisation. Unacademy, the SoftBank-backed edtech company, recently announced it would lay off 10 per cent of its workforce or about 350 employees amid the drying up of funds in the sector.  

    In the same tweet, Munjal said that he is willing to help other companies in reappointing the laid-off employees. “If you are hiring in your organisation, please email me at gaurav@unacademy.com and we would send you the directory of the impacted roles,” he tweeted. 

    On November 7, in an internal email sent to the employees, Munjal said that the company needs to keep optimising and building efficient systems for leaner and unprecedented times.  

    “Around 10 per cent of Unacademy employees across the group will be impacted because of this, and if you are one of the impacted – you will be receiving a detailed communication within 48 hours from HR,” he said. 

    In April this year, Unacademy laid off nearly 600 employees from its different offices. Those asked to leave were mostly educators, tutors and contractual employees. 

    Also read: Start-up funding picks up in October, but fintech and edtech struggle

    Following this, in July, Munjal assured his employees in an internal email that the company would not exercise any more layoffs.  

    In his recent note, Munjal apologised for the u-turn, and blamed prevailing market challenges, and harsh economic conditions for the decision to lay off employees. 

    The note added: “We are no strangers to the harsh economic conditions that everyone is witnessing these days. These are very difficult times for the technology ecosystem. And things are getting worse with each passing day.”

    The Bangalore-based edtech unicorn reported a two-fold jump in its losses last fiscal (FY22). The company reported a loss of Rs 2,848 crore for the year 2021-22, with operating revenue of Rs 719 crore. The company’s ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) costs had jumped to more than Rs 1,200 crore for the year, resulting in widening losses. 

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  • ‘No easy way to do this’: Unacademy lays off 10% of its employees to reduce monthly burns

    ‘No easy way to do this’: Unacademy lays off 10% of its employees to reduce monthly burns

    Softbank-backed ed-tech firm Unacademy has fired 10 per cent of its employees in a bid to reduce monthly losses and operational spending. This is the second time in a year the unicorn has taken this extreme step to minimise its widening losses. 

    In an e-mail to employees, Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal said that he was deeply saddened to share that the company will have to say goodbye to some of its extremely talented employees. He said these would be across the group from verticals where the company has to take a difficult decision either to scale down or shut. 

    “Around 10% of Unacademy employees across the group will be impacted because of this, and if you are one of the impacted – you will be receiving a detailed communication within 48 hours from HR,” he said.

    In April this year, the Bengaluru-headquartered unicorn had taken a similar step when it had laid off nearly 600 employees, constituting nearly 10 per cent of its employee base. Those asked to leave mostly comprised educators/tutors and contractual employees. 

    Munjal began his email by saying, “We are no strangers to the harsh economic conditions that everyone is witnessing these days. There are very difficult times for the technology ecosystem. And things are getting worse with each passing day.”

    The CEO apologised for the layoffs and said that the decision was due to a slowdown in funding and core businesses moving offline. “I want to apologise to everyone sincerely since we made a commitment of no layoffs in the organisation but the market challenges have forced us to reevaluate our decisions. Funding has significantly slowed down and a large portion of our core business has moved offline,” Munjal wrote. 

    Munjal said that this decision has not been easy and “I take full responsibility”. “There is no easy way to do this and this is definitely not the kind of separation I would have wanted,” he said.

    The company will provide severance pay equivalent to one’s notice period and an additional two months besides medical coverage for an additional year. 

     

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