Exclusive: A16Z Backed BlueStacks Lays Off 60 Indian Employees

Popular Android emulator platform BlueStacks laid off 60 Indian employees earlier this week, sources told Inc42.

Employees from various departments were informed during a video call on Monday (July 18) that their services were no longer required. The startup cited internal restructuring as the reason behind the layoffs, the sources added. The overall layoff count across various countries could be as high as 120 – 150 employees, people aware of the development told Inc42. Apart from Delhi, BlueStacks also has offices in London, Tokyo, Seoul, and Beijing. 

The startup is offering a one-month salary as severance pay to the laid off employees which also includes medical benefits, as per the sources

Confirming the layoffs, Hue Harguindeguy, CHRO, BlueStacks in a statement told Inc42, “We had doubled in size from 300 to 600 people over the last two years. With the changes in the macro-economy, we had to realign. We are currently working with the impacted employees to help them find new jobs and roles.”

The company has also confirmed that they have let go of 60 Indian employees. 

BlueStacks, founded by Rosen Sharma, Jay Vaishnav, Suman Saraf in 2011, had started gaining popularity with the increasing demand for Android smartphones. 

The startup saw a big rise in its downloads from 2014 as more and more Android games started appearing. BlueStacks allows Android users to use Android software on Windows PC and MacOS. The startup’s offering was unmatched in those days, and users got the first hand experience of playing Android games and using apps on bigger screens of laptops and desktops. Lately, the company has also forayed into cloud gaming.

Until last year, BlueStacks had 40 Mn monthly active users and over 180 Mn downloads per year, resulting in total downloads of 1 Bn till date. 

As per Crunchbase, BlueStacks has raised $48.8 Mn in funding so far, and is backed by A16Z, Qualcomm, Intel, Samsung, AMD, Presidio Partners, among others marquee investors. 

However, the startup’s popularity started waning as many software developers over the years started offering web versions of their apps for seamless experience. One big example of that was the launch of WhatsApp Web, which now lets users share text through desktop/laptops. 

Besides, the launch of Windows 11 also had a major impact on BlueStacks’ user base. Microsoft announced that the Windows 11 will natively support downloading and using any Android app. This meant that users wouldn’t require emulator platforms, like BlueStacks, to create a virtual operating system to run Android apps on their laptop/desktop. Windows 11 users can directly download the Android app and use it.

BlueStacks became the latest startup to have let go employees amidst the economic downturn. If we specifically focus on Indian employees, as per Inc42 layoff tracker, 11,353 employees have been impacted due to layoffs in 3 dozens of startups.