SUMMARY
The startup laid of 125-130 employees from across departments, but most of them were from the sales and marketing teams
In May this year, FrontRow had laid off around 145 employees amid funding crunch
As per Inc42’s layoff tracker, Indian startups have laid off over 15,000 employees in 2022
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Lightspeed-backed celebrity-focused learning startup FrontRow laid off around 125-130 employees recently. Most of the laid off employees were from the sales and marketing teams.
FrontRow founder Ishaan Preet Singh confirmed the development with Inc42.
With this, FrontRow’s employee count stands at 40-50 now. This is the second round of layoffs at FrontRow in five months. In May, Inc42 exclusively reported that FrontRow had laid off 145 employees to cut costs.
“Unfortunately, as we realized that a sales and marketing led approach to this market didn’t work with our current delivery model, we had to let go a large part of our team. We’re grateful to everything they put into building FrontRow into what it is today, their contributions are immeasurable. They’re also some of the best folks we have worked with and I’m sure will do amazing things!” Singh said.
He added that the startup has a cash runway for over a year, and will grow with a small team. The founder also claimed that the laid off employees have been offered a one-month salary as severance package.
The development was first reported by Entrackr.
The latest round of layoffs has come almost a year after the startup raised its Series A funding round. FrontRow had bagged $14 Mn in the Series A round from investors such as Eight Roads Ventures, GSV, Lightspeed, and Elevation Capital.
The startup also counts Deepika Padukone’s Family Office, Vishal Dadlani, rapper Raftaar, CRED’s Kunal Shah, Unacademy’s Gaurav Munjal and ShareChat’s Farid Ahsan among its investors.
Overall, the startup has raised close to $17 Mn in funding till date.
Interestingly, layoffs at FrontRow have come at a time when edtech decacorn BYJU’S made a foray into celebrity-focused learning with ‘BYJU’S Xcel’. In the last couple of months, the edtech giant has conducted masterclasses with VVS Laxman, Parineeti Chopra, Mithali Raj, among other celebrities.
Earlier today, edtech giant BYJU’S said it has laid off 2,500 employees in a bid to achieve profitability by the end of FY23.
The edtech sector emerged as the darling of investors during the Covid-19 pandemic (2020 onwards), and witnessed funding to the tune of $8.4 Bn during the two years. The funding boom also helped the sector produce 5 unicorns. However, amidst the funding winter of 2022, the sector is now struggling with funding crunch.
The decline in funding has forced edtech startups to take various cost-cutting measures, including layoffs. Indian edtech startups have laid off over 7,000 employees in 2022 so far, the highest compared to any other sector. Besides, startups like Lido Learning, Crejo.Fun, Udaay, and SuperLearn shut their operations this year.
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