SUMMARY
Sources close to the development said that the company has laid off nearly 60 employees, including coaches/trainers, since last year
However, as per the company, the number of laid off employees stands at around 30
Fittr registered a loss of INR 25.2 Cr in FY22 against a profit of INR 49.04 Lakh in FY21, even though its revenue from operations rose to INR 83.05 Cr during the year from INR 52.7 Cr in FY21
Pune-based fitness startup Fittr has laid off nearly 11% of its workforce, the company told Inc42 in an email statement, responding to a related query.
Though, as per the company, the number of laid off employees stands at around 30, sources close to the development informed us that the startup has laid off nearly 60 employees, including coaches/trainers, since last year.
“The layoffs have happened across marketing, sales, client servicing and tech teams,” a source said.
In the statement, the cofounder and CEO of Fittr, Jitendra Chouksey, said the company had to let go of people due to role redundancy (11% of the total workforce in a span of 6-8 months). “Meanwhile, we did hire to backfill certain critical positions,” Chouksey added.
Chouksey further claimed that the startup saw a surge in hiring post-COVID on the back of hyper-growth in the business.
Founded in 2016 by Jitendra Chouksey, Sonal Singh, Jyoti Dabas, Bala Krishna Reddy and Rohit Chattopadhyay, Fittr (previously SQUATS) was launched as a fitness community platform on WhatsApp. The community-driven application helps people attain their fitness goals — gaining or losing weight or generally keeping fit.
In a freemium model, services such as resolving queries about individual fitness regime is free. At the same time, it charges a fee for offering fitness coaches, who will create personalised diets and exercise regimes.
“Now, in the stabilisation phase, it is prudent to realign a few roles with the future growth plans of the company, new benchmarks and skill sets. Therefore, we have had to let go of a few employees who were hired during this hyper-growth period. We are always happy to see our employees finishing 5 and 6 years with us. In fact, we have a good number of employees who have completed more than 5 years with us. They are part of our journey,” the Fittr CEO said.
“Addressing role redundancy and having focus-driven employees will help us create a more performance-oriented team. It is pertinent to note that some of those employees have resigned voluntarily as they had received better offers and were looking for a career shift,” he added.
Digital wellness platforms received a temporary setback during the initial phases of the pandemic, but it recovered sharply after users flooded online platforms as physical training centres/gyms remained closed.
According to Fittr’s MCA filings, it slipped into losses in FY22. The startup registered a loss of INR 25.2 Cr in FY22 against a profit of INR 49.04 Lakh in FY21, even though its revenue from operations rose to INR 83.05 Cr in FY22 from INR 52.7 Cr in FY21.
In an interview with the Hindu BusinessLine in July 2022, Fittr cofounder Jyoti Dabbas had earlier said that the company closed FY22 with revenues to the tune of INR 100 Cr. She also claimed that the healthtech startup is aiming to double its revenue to INR 200 Cr in FY23 and expand operations by onboarding 1,000 additional coaches.
The fitness startup last raised $11.5 Mn in September 2021 from Dream Capital and Elysian Park Ventures. It also counts Sequoia Capital India’s Surge amongst its investors.
Fittr joins the long list of Indian startups who have trimmed their workforce since the onset of funding winter. Overall, we have seen over 22,900 employees being impacted amid layoffs at 79 startups. In the healthtech sector, seven healthtech startups have conducted layoffs impacting over 1,735 employees.
