Exclusive: D2C Startup Blissclub Fires About 18% Workforce To Cut Costs

Bengaluru-based fashion apparel startup Blissclub laid off around 21 employees, or 18% of its workforce, in the second week of January, sources told Inc42. 

The startup’s founder and CEO Minu Margeret informed the employees about the decision to layoff 21 employees as part of a restructuring exercise during a town hall on January 11, the sources added.

However, the number of employees affected by the exercise could be as high as 30, multiple sources said.

“In the town hall, Margaret said the restructuring exercise was a pure business decision to move forward. Post this, impacted employees received invites for meetings within 10 minutes. They were informed about the layoffs in these meetings with their respective team heads,” one of the sources said. 

The employees were told to resign on their own or else their services would be terminated, the sources added.

The layoffs impacted teams across verticals, including sales, marketing, growth, and product. However, the worst hit was the creative team, which was completely dissolved. 

The startup is paying a two-month salary as severance package to the impacted employees.

Confirming the restructuring exercise, Margaret, in an email response, told Inc42, “We had a one time restructuring done in Jan 2024 which impacted 21 employees of Blissclub. Come 2024, with some changes in strategy, our new direction meant these roles were impacted. In December 2023 we had our highest ever month in terms of topline for Blissclub.”

However, as per the sources, the primary reason behind the layoffs was the startup’s inability to raise fresh capital amid a high cash burn. Blissclub last raised $15 Mn in its Series A funding round from Eight Road Ventures and Elevation Capital in May 2022. 

Founded in 2020, Blissclub began operations as an online platform selling activewear products for women. Since then, it has expanded its product line and also opened a few offline stores.

Its net loss surged 305.6% to INR 35.7 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) from INR 8.89 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Operating revenue jumped 361.4% to INR 68.3 Cr from INR 14.8 Cr in FY22. 

Meanwhile, total expenditure also grew 354% to INR 107.8 Cr from INR 23.7 Cr in FY22. 

With the layoffs, Blissclub has joined the growing list of Indian startups that have undertaken restructuring exercises to cut costs since the onset of the funding winter in 2022. As per Inc42’s layoff tracker, Indian startups have laid off over 34.7K employees since the beginning of 2022.