Vedantu had earlier fired 200 of its contractual and full-time employees, amid cratering demand for online education, owing to the opening up of offline schools and institutes
The Tiger Global-backed company edtech unicorn, Vedantu has laid off 424 employees about 7% of the company workforce, according to a blog post shared by the company.
This is the second round of layoffs for the edtech unicorn in May as Just days ago the company had fired 200 employees or about 3.5% of its workforce amid cratering demand for online education, owing to the opening up of offline schools and institutes.
CEO Vamsi Krishna, in his email to the staff, said, “Currently, the external environment is tough. War in Europe, impending recession fears, and Fed rate interest hikes have led to inflationary pressures with massive correction in stocks globally and India as well. Given this environment, capital will be scarce for upcoming quarters.”
“With Covid tailwinds receding, schools and offline models opening up, the hyper-growth of 9X, Vedantu experienced during the last 2 years will also get moderated. For the long term sustenance of the mission, Vedantu would need to adapt too. Out of 5900 Vedans, 424 of our fellow teammates i.e 7 per cent of our company, will be parting with us. This has been an extremely difficult call to make, and I want each Vedan to understand why V had to take this call and what it means to you and the future of Vedantu”.
It’s important to build a longer capital runway for Vedantu given the uncertainties of the outside world and tightening of capital availability expected for the next few quarters, Krishna added.
Krishna also said that Vedantu did a comprehensive review of all its projects, and mapped them into core and non-core projects to align all projects and teams to the core focus areas of Vedantu and rationalized the ones that were not in sync and the result is, that a few teams and projects will have to be deprioritized and in the process, a few of our Vedans will be let go as well.
Adding that these calls are never easy to make and that this is not a reflection of either the ability or the performance of the impacted Vedans in any way, the CEO said that these are all amazing people but this would be critical for the continuation of Vedantu’s mission.
What next for laid-off employees-:
Vamsi Krishna highlighted what will happen next to the employees:
Vedans who are moving on will receive an email from [email protected] with the subject line- Discussion. The company will be extending benefits to Vedans which include extended health benefits for self and family till August 5, 2022, and access to 15 doctor consultations and discounted pathology & pharmacy services through Practo till April 29, 2023. They will also be offered voluntary outplacement service support – including support on resume building, interviewing preparation support, training and opportunity identification.
With this mass layoff, Vedantu joins edtech companies Unacademy, and Lido Learning in laying off employees with the edtech sector in India is slowing down with schools and physical tuition classes reopening, thanks to decreasing Covid-19 cases across the country.
Author: Ayush Singh
