CARS24 Lays Off 200 Staff In Restructuring Exercise

IPO-Bound Cars24 Fires 200 Employees Part Of Restructuring Exercise

SUMMARY

CARS24 cofounder Vikram Chopra said certain projects did not deliver as expected over a few months which resulted in hiring for few roles too early in the stage

The company claims to provide severance packages and outplacement services to outgoing employees

The development comes just a few days after the startup acquired Team-BHP

Used car marketplace Cars24 has laid off around 200 employees across various departments as part of its restructuring exercise aimed at streamlining operations.

CARS24 cofounder Vikram Chopra confirmed in a blog post that employees across various functions have been affected by the restructuring activity.

“Over the past few weeks, we have had to make the difficult decision to part ways with around 200 of our teammates across various functions,” the post read.

Entrackr reported the development first.

Chopra further said that certain projects did not deliver as expected over a few months which resulted in hiring for few roles too early in the stage.

“We’ve always believed in moving fast. We’ve always pushed to build big. But the hard truth is: speed without enough clarity is expensive. And when the math doesn’t add up, it is on us to reset,” he wrote.

The SoftBank-backed startup claims to be providing severance packages to the outgoing employees coupled with outplacement services.

Founded in 2015 by Chopra, Ruchit Agarwal, Gajendra Jangid and Mehul Agrawal, CARS24 is an online marketplace for buying and selling used cars. Early this year, the IPO-bound startup also ventured into the ‘new cars’ market.

The development comes almost a few days after the startup acquired homegrown automotive forum Team-BHP in an undisclosed deal.

The Singapore parent of the Delhi NCR-based startup infused INR 250 Cr in CARS24 last year and has raised more than billions of dollars since its inception. The startup was last valued at $3.2 Bn in its last funding round. It is backed by the likes of SoftBank, Alpha Wave Global and Commercial Bank of Dubai.

The last round of layoffs at CARS24 took place two years back when the funding winter was at its peak. During its last layoff rounds the startup fired 600 employees.

The development comes at a time when the third largest startup ecosystem of the world has started to see a string of layoffs. In April itself, Zopper and foodtech giant Zomato trimmed 100 and 600 employees respectively.

Last year, at least 30 startups laid off more than 9,000 employees. More that 60% of the startups cut jobs due to cost cutting measures and to achieve profitability.