A Day After $50 Mn Fundraise, Bizongo Lays Off 50 Employees

SUMMARY

A Bizongo spokesperson said the startup is driving sharper focus towards key business goals and in lieu of this, it has “reallocated” the employees

The layoffs could likely be attributed to the startup’s growing focus on profitability as it shifts its focus towards the raw material sector and streamlining procurement of metals

Just a day ago, Bizongo raised nearly $50 Mn as part of its Series E funding round led by Schroder Adveq, with participation from IFC, Chiratae Ventures, B Capital, among others

Just a day after raising a $50 Mn funding, B2B vendor management platform Bizongo has now fired nearly 50 employees.

As per its LinkedIn page, the startup has around 413 employees. This means it has downsized its team size by over 10%. However, there is no clarity on which teams were impacted by the layoffs.

In a statement to Inc42, Bizongo said the move is part of its focus on driving key business goals.

“We are driving sharper focus towards key business goals and in lieu of this, we have reallocated our people. Parting ways with people is never easy and these are difficult decisions. We are fully committed to extend support to affected employees with the best of our abilities,” a Bizongo spokesperson said.

The layoffs could likely be attributed to the company’s growing focus on profitability as it shifts its focus towards the raw material sector and streamlining procurement of metals.

However, the move has come as a surprise as Bizongo announced an INR 416.1 Cr fundraise on Wednesday in its Series E round led by Zurich-based private equity firm Schroder Adveq. Not just this, Bizongo even inched closer to the unicorn tag as the round pegged the startup at a valuation of $980 Mn, a 63% increase compared to the previous fundraise in August 2022.

Founded in 2015 by IIT graduates Aniket Deb, Sachin Agrawal and Ankit Tomar, Bizongo is a B2B platform that offers software-based vendor management, supply-chain automation and financing solutions.

It currently serves 450-500 enterprise customers and has over 7,000-8,000 SMEs onboarded on its platform.