Edtech Unicorn Vedantu Fires Another 385 Employees; Over 1,100 Laid Off In 2022 So Far

Edtech major Vedantu has laid off another 385 employees from sales, HR, and content teams, sources aware of the matter told Inc42.

This is the fourth round of layoffs undertaken by the edtech unicorn in 2022. The latest layoff exercise comes over a month after the startup acquired a majority stake in Karnataka-based test preparation platform Deeksha for $40 Mn.

Vedantu currently has about 18 months of cash runway, the sources said. 

The startup is offering a salary of two months as a severance package and has extended the medical coverage for the fired employees till March 31, 2023, they added.

The development was first reported by Entrackr. “Founding team including CXO [is] also taking 50% pay cut,” a source was quoted as saying by the publication. As per the report, Vedantu is currently left with around 3,300 employees.

Vedantu did not respond to Inc42’s queries on the layoffs. 

As per Inc42’s layoff tracker, the edtech unicorn, founded by Vamsi Krishna, Anand Prakash, and Pulkit Jain, has fired 724 of its employees since May this year. After the latest layoffs, the total number of impacted employees stands at over 1,100.

Earlier in May, Inc42 reported about the edtech major firing around 200 employees. Soon after, Vedantu CEO Krishna took to LinkedIn to announce that the company was laying off 424 employees across teams, comprising 7% of its total workforce.

In July, it laid off another 100 employees, Inc42 exclusively reported.

Krishna cited the Russia-Ukraine war, fears of an impending recession, interest rate hikes, and massive correction in stocks as the reasons for the layoffs in May.

While tech companies across industries have been hit by these issues, the Indian edtech startups have felt the strongest impact. The reopening of schools and education institutes post the pandemic has further hit their revenues, adding to their woes. 

Consequently, Indian edtech startups have been laying off employees to cut their costs. Over 7,500 employees, including contracted and full-time, have been impacted by the job cuts by Indian edtech startups in 2022 so far.

Besides, five edtech startups – Lido Learning, Crejo.Fun, Udayy, Qin1, and SuperLearn – have also shut their operations this year so far. 

The biggest layoff in the edtech sector took place at BYJU’S, where a total of 2,500 employees were impacted.

Last month, Inc42 was the first to report about edtech startup Teachmint laying off 45 employees, impacting around 5% of its workforce.

In its latest round of layoffs, Unacademy also let go off around 10% of its workforce last month.

(With inputs from Debarghya Sil)