Fintech Startup Khatabook Fires Over 40 Employees In A Restructuring Exercise

Peak XV Partners-backed fintech startup Khatabook has seen layoffs that impacted over 40 employees in its bid to cut costs and turn profitable.

The impacted employees were informed about the move in a town hall meeting earlier this week. The startup has offered a three-month salary as a severance package to the impacted employees.

Entrackr was the first to report this development. The impacted employees were from sales, marketing, analytics and tech teams, the publication reported citing sources.

A Khatabook spokesperson confirmed the layoffs with Inc42. “In line with our profitability goals, we are reorienting some parts of our business which requires us to operate with a leaner team on certain business lines. This restructuring has impacted 6% of our 700 employees. All impacted employees have been provided with a separation package which covers 3 months of pay, stock option vesting & health insurance extension and other job search-related support,” the spokesperson said.

Khatabook, founded by Vaibhav Kalpe and later acquired by Kyte Technologies in 2018, is a bookkeeping platform that helps kirana store owners manage their accounts through a digital ledger. The startup shut down its ecommerce enablement product MyStore in November 2021 to focus on its core bookkeeping and lending businesses.

Khatabook has raised $187 Mn to date, including $100 Mn from Tribe Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures in its Series C round. It counts B Capital, Peak XV Partners and Better Capital among its investors.

The startup’s net loss widened over 3X to INR 111.1 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) from INR 32.5 Cr in the previous year. Revenue from operations quadrupled to INR 71.1 Cr from INR 16.9 Cr in FY21, while total expenses grew 74% to INR 189.3 Cr in FY22 from INR 108.6 Cr in FY21.

The startup currently offers business management applications for MSMEs in multiple languages. It claims that its app has been downloaded by over 50 Mn users.

Khatabook competes against the likes of OkCredit, Pagarbook and Paytm’s Business Khata.

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