After WhiteHat Jr, BYJU’S Owned Toppr Lays Off 350+ Employees

BYJU’S owned Toppr has become the latest edtech startup to have gone through layoffs. The edtech startup, which was acquired by BYJU’S last year, has laid off around 350 employees this week. 

The layoff has come on the heels of another BYJU’S owned WhiteHat Jr laid off around 300 employees.

According to Inc42 sources in the company, Toppr employees who were working for BYJU’S project were informed about the layoffs over a call from the HR department. As per sources, several projects that the employees were working on have been called off. 

The impacted employees were asked to put down their papers by June 29, 2022. In case employees failed to put down the papers, the management would send termination letters, they were told.

In an email shared with the impacted employees that Inc42 has got access to, the HR department said that after Toppr’s acquisition, BYJU’s and Toppr have now aligned their business lines and resources to meet new objectives.

“In the view of the above change in business, restructuring is necessary and the company has to make positions within your department redundant,” the mail read. 

According to Inc42 sources, the content and media team of Toppr were the worst hit due to the layoffs. Impacted employees were subject matter experts, content developers, managers, head of departments for various subjects among others.

As per sources, Toppr’s management had assured that there won’t be any job cuts post the acquisition of Toppr. After the acquisition, the majority of Toppr’s employees from sales and marketing were absorbed by BYJU’S. Inc42 has learnt that the impacted employees were told in March that they will be receiving BYJU’S mail ID, however, they never received it. 

As per the HR mail, Toppr will be providing severance payment equivalent to the notice period of the laid off employees along with an additional 15 days’ salary for each completed year and prorata performance bonus (if any) till June 30, 2022.

A BYJU’s spokesperson has confirmed the layoffs without revealing the layoff count. “BYJU’S has completed the integration of Toppr and has absorbed almost 80% of its talented workforce into the BYJU’S ecosystem. As the next step, we are optimising teams to recalibrate business priorities and accelerate our long-term growth,” the spokesperson said.

BYJU’S had acquired Toppr last year along with Great Learning. The deals were pegged at $150 Mn and $600 Mn for Toppr and Great Learning, respectively.

Founded in 2013 by Zishaan Hayath and Hemanth Goteti, Toppr is an edtech startup which helps students prepare for their examinations in a personalised manner. As per its website, the startup now offers solutions for JEE and NEET preparations. Before the acquisition, Toppr had raised around $112 Mn in funding and was backed by marquee investors including Foundation Holdings, Kaizenvest, Eight Roads Ventures, and Helion Venture Partners, among others.

As per FY21 financials, Toppr Technologies Private Limited had generated INR 52 Cr in revenue, of which INR 50.6 Cr came from operations. During the same period, the startup’s expense stood at INR 178 Cr, thus incurring a loss of INR 125.9 Cr. 

Layoffs Afflict India’s Thriving Edtech Space

The Edtech sector saw a massive uptick in funding and adoption since the beginning of the pandemic. Speaking on funding, From September 2020 to June 2022, the sector minted as many as six unicorns, including Unacademy, Eruditus, UpGrad, Vedantu, Lead School and PhysicsWallah. Of the total funding of $7.7 Bn received between 2014 and 2021, about $6.1 Bn was raised in 2020 and 2021 alone. 

However, with changing market conditions, the sector has started to show downfall. The last six months even witnessed two edtech startups i.e. Udayy and SuperLearn shutting down operations. While Lido fired a large part of its workforce due to lack of funding. The sector has also witnessed a large number of layoffs. 

According to Inc42 Layoff Tracker, in 2022, 10,958 employees have been impacted by layoffs at 30 Indian startups. Layoffs at edtech startups alone have impacted 3,898 employees. Out of this, 1,000 were forced resignations which took place at WhiteHat Jr.

Toppr became the 9th edtech startup in the country to have conducted layoffs this year alone. In terms of layoff count, Unacademy has let go of most employees, followed by Vedantu. 

The development was first reported by Entrackr

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