Exclusive: Edtech Startup Teachmint Lays Off 45 Employees As Part Of Restructuring

Bengaluru-based edtech startup Teachmint laid off 45 employees, or around 5% of its workforce, last week, sources told Inc42. The laid off employees were from the sales and operations teams, the sources added. The startup offered a severance package of three months and extended the health coverage for the impacted employees. It would also expedite the vesting of ESOPs for the affected employees. Besides, the laid off employees can also apply for different roles within the organisation, the sources said.

Teachmint confirmed the layoffs with Inc42 in a statement. “In an effort to build long-term efficiencies and address redundancies, we have restructured some teams. As a result, unfortunately, some roles have been impacted. The impacted employees have been informed in advance and we are supporting them to the maximum extent possible,” it said.

The layoffs came almost a year after the edtech startup raised $78 Mn in a Series B round led by new investors Rocketship.vc and Vulcan Capital. The round, which valued the startup at $500 Mn, also saw participation from Lightspeed India Partners, Learn Capital, CM Ventures, and Better Capital, among others. 

Prior to that, the startup had raised $20 Mn in its pre-Series B round led by Learn Capital. Teachmint has raised $118 Mn in total till date. 

Founded in 2020 by Mihir Gupta, Payoj Jain, Divyansh Bordia and Anshuman Kumar, Teachmint is a mobile and video-first teaching platform built exclusively to help teachers digitise their classrooms. Its offerings help teachers conduct live classes, record and store lectures, chart out course structures, automate performance assessments, maintain smooth administration workflow and collect fees.

Earlier this year, Teachmint acquired Vadodara-based Teachmore in a cash and stock deal. The startup said that the acquisition would allow it to expand its offerings. 

With the layoffs, Teachmint has joined a long list of Indian startups which have fired employees this year amidst a funding winter. Besides, Teachmint is the 15th Indian edtech startup to lay off employees this year. 

After an unprecedented boom in business in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic and stay-at-home mandates, the edtech sector has been hit hard by the reopening of schools and educational institutions in 2022. The funding crunch due to the negative investor sentiment because of the ongoing global geopolitical tensions have further complicated the matter for the sector.

Indian edtech startups have laid off around 6,900 employees in 2022 so far, which is about 43% of the total layoffs this year by Indian startups. Besides, startups like Lido Learning, Udayy, Super Learn, and Crejo Fun also shut their operations this year.

As per Inc42’s layoff tracker, Indian startups have fired a total of 16,083 employees in 2022 so far.