Exclusive: Lightspeed-Backed Dukaan Lays Off 30% Workforce

Retail tech startup Dukaan laid off around 56 employees, or around 30% of its workforce, earlier this week, sources told Inc42. This was the second round of layoff at the Suumit Shah-led startup within six months. 

The latest layoffs affected inside sales team and account managers, the sources said, adding that the impacted employees were offered two-month salary as severance package.

Dukaan, which helped small and medium businesses (SMBs) establish online presence, has shifted its focus to helping D2C brands scale up and this was the reason for the layoffs, the sources added.

Dukaan founder Shah confirmed the latest layoffs with Inc42. In September last year, Dukaan fired around 23 employees due to the same reason.

Launched in June 2020 by Shah and Subhash Choudhary, Dukaan is a no-code platform that earlier used to help merchants and SMBs launch their ecommerce website in a few minutes. However, the startup later shifted its focus to helping D2C brands scale up. 

Many clients of Shopify India, Dukaan’s main competitor, have already moved or are trying out the services of Dukaan. 10Club, Truke, Vu Televisions, HealthXP, and Uppercase are some of the notable D2C brands that have moved to Dukaan.

Dukaan raised $12.4 Mn in its pre-Series A round, led by 640 Oxford Ventures, in 2021. The funding round also saw participation from existing investors Snow Leopard Ventures, Lightspeed Partners and Matrix Partners India. 

Earlier, the Bengaluru-based startup raised $6 Mn in a seed round from Matrix Partners India, and Lightspeed India Partners. The startup is also in talks to raise a Series A round. 

As per Inc42’s layoff tracker, Indian startups, including Dukaan, have laid off around 23,000 employees since 2022, when the funding winter engulfed the Indian startup ecosystem.

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