PayU India Lays Off 150 Employees To Exercise Organisational Realignment

PayU India, the payments and fintech unit of South African multinational Naspers’ investment arm Prosus, has laid off around 6% of its workforce, approximately 150 employees, as the company realigns its teams in India. 

In a statement to Inc42, PayU India confirmed the layoffs, saying that it was ‘realigning teams across some businesses in India’ as it focuses on building a full-stack digital financial services ecosystem in the country. 

“Keeping in mind our highest strategic priorities, we are realigning teams across some of [our] businesses in India. As a result of which, regretfully we will to have part ways with some of our colleagues,” a PayU spokesperson said.

The company added that it has no plans for any major downsizing.

Close to 150 employees, which is less than 6% of its total employee strength, will be impacted by the organisational realignment. The layoffs are believed to have mainly affected PayU India’s digital payment security and mobile payment technology unit Wibmo. Wimbo was acquired by PayU India in 2019 for $70 Mn. Other acquired businesses that may have also been impacted by the layoffs include LazyPay and Citrus Pay. 

The development was first reported by Economic Times.

The layoffs come shortly after PayU India announced its FY22 results, showcasing its profitability in the said financial year. The Prosus-owned fintech giant turned profitable in FY22, making INR 126 Cr in profit in the year against revenue of INR 2,130.3 Cr.

PayU owns a 30% market share in India’s payment gateway market and competes with the likes of Razorpay, CC Avenue, Paytm and more for a piece of India’s $1.3 Tn worth of fintech market. But lately, the startup has been facing troubles in its varied verticals.

For instance, the RBI has been tightening regulations for the fintech sector. One was disallowing the loading of PPIs from credit lines, impacting PayU’s LazyPay business vertical. The startup had to reassess its credit business strategy and relaunch as a UPI platform. Second, as the tokenisation came into effect, while PayU was one of the first to offer the services to its customers, business disruptions followed the tokenisation of 65 Mn+ cards.

In fact, before announcing its financial statements, the startup was on track to acquire online payment gateway Billdesk in one of the largest fintech deals worth $4.7 Bn.  The deal, which would have been the largest acquisition in the fintech space in India, was abruptly pulled back by PayU due to ‘unfulfilled M&A conditions’. Read the detailed Inc42 story to understand the reasons that killed the PayU-Billdesk deal.