Insurtech Startup Nova Benefits Lays Off 70 Employees As Part Of Business Restructuring

Bengaluru-based insurtech startup Nova Benefits laid off around 70 employees across sales, accounts, marketing, creative teams, among others, this week. 

In a mass mail, accessed by Inc42, the startup’s founders informed about the layoffs to those employees who were retained. The founders said that they had to make “difficult people decisions”. 

“We owe everyone at Nova a challenging, fast-paced growth path. However, in the face of our redefined business strategy, we cannot provide this to 30% of our teammates,” the mail read. 

The founders said that the startup intended to extend its present cash runway beyond four years, so that it was not dependent on “external capital” and could tide over the “funding winter”.

Nova Benefits, later in the day, even conducted a town hall, which the laid off couldn’t join as their work credentials had been revoked. 

The latest layoffs by the startup came almost a month after it laid off 10 employees. Back then, founder Saransh Garg had confirmed the development to Inc42. 

The latest layoffs came as a shock to most of the employees, as after last month’s layoffs, the startup had assured them that it had enough cash runway and there would be no additional layoffs.

As per Entrackr, Nova Benefits has been expecting to raise $30 Mn in its Series B funding round from existing investors – Bessemer Ventures and SIG. In September last year, the startup raised $10 Mn in its Series A round from the above mentioned investors. 

As per people aware of the development, the startup offered two-month severance pay to the laid off employees and also extended health and mental wellness coverage by two months. Nova Benefits is also facilitating the employees with outplacement. 

Nova Benefits, founded in 2020 by Garg and Yash Gupta, is an employee benefits platform, focusing primarily on corporate health insurance. The startup claims to help HR professionals by reducing manual work, thus helping them focus on other complex tasks.

According to the Inc42 layoff tracker, around 10,608 employees (including Nova Benefits) have been laid off by Indian startups in 2022 so far.   

The development was first reported by Entrackr

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