[Updated] Exclusive: Tiger Global-Backed Healthtech Unicorn Innovaccer Lays Off 90 Employees

Update | 7th Sept, 14:00

The number of impacted employees has been updated. Previously, the company had said that the layoffs have impacted 120 employees. However, post publishing this article, the team clarified that 90 people were laid off.

Healthtech startup Innovaccer has laid off around 120 employees. The startup, which entered the unicorn club last year, asked employees, mostly from the tech team, to put down their papers today (September 1) itself, sources told Inc42.

Innovaccer shared a video meeting link with the employees who were to be laid off earlier today. During the meetings, in which senior HR personnel and team managers were present, the employees were asked to resign, the sources added.

“The layoffs’ development was shocking. Even a couple of days ago, the founder had informed the whole company on Slack that the company was performing well. Don’t know what changed in the past couple of days,” one of the sources said. 

The startup is offering a three-month salary as severance package to the impacted employees. Several team managers will be impacted by the layoffs, causing several projects to shut down, the sources said. 

In a statement shared with Inc42, Innovaccer cofounder and CEO Abhinav Shashank confirmed the layoffs and attributed it to the current “economic conditions”. 

“Innovaccer’s business fundamentals are strong, but given current economic conditions, we implemented a small workforce reduction today to optimize our cost structure. These cuts, which totaled less than 8% of our workforce, will help us improve business efficiency and take the right steps toward profitability as we continue our rapid growth,” Shashank said.

The development comes almost nine months after the healthtech startup doubled its valuation to $3.2 Bn by raising $150 Mn in its Series E round. The startup’s Series E round was led by Mubadala Group along with B Capital Group, Microsoft’s M12 fund, OMERS Growth Equity, Dragoneer, Steadview Capital. 

Innovaccer also counts marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Whale Rock Capital Management, Avidity Partners, and Schonfeld Strategic Advisors among its backers. 

In early 2021, Innovaccer became India’s first healthtech startup to turn unicorn after raising $105 Mn in its Series D round at a valuation of $1.3 Bn. Till date, the startup has raised $380 Mn in funding across multiple rounds. 

 Founded in 2014 by IIT-Kharagpur graduates Abhinav Shashank and Kanav Hasija and IIM- Ahmedabad alum Sandeep Gupta, Innovaccer analyses healthcare data and offers actionable insights to healthcare providers, hospitals, insurance companies and other organisations and businesses. 

Innovaccer claims that its health cloud software is used by over 50 healthcare organisations, including CommonSpirit Health, MercyOne, and Orlando Health. Though the startup has offices in Noida and Bengaluru, it works closely with the hospitals in the US. 

Innovaccer has joined the long list of Indian startups which have resorted to layoffs in 2022 amid a global economic slowdown and funding winter.

As per Inc42’s layoff tracker, Indian startups have laid off around 12,083 (including Innovaccer) employees so far this year. 

Among the healthtech startups, MFine laid off around 600 employees earlier this year as it failed to raise a fresh round of funding. Breathe Well-Being and PharmEasy’s Docon are the other healthtech-related startups which laid off employees in 2022. 

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