Peak XV-Backed Kenko Health Lays Off Over 20% Of Employees

Bengaluru-based healthcare financing startup Kenko Health has laid off at least 20% of its workforce (around 80 employees), more than a year after raising $12 Mn in its Series A funding round, Inc42 has learnt from sources close to the company. 

However, it is not immediately clear if this is the actual tally of laid-off employees. Other sources indicate the number could be as high as 50% of the workforce. Overall, Kenko is said to have had over 400 employees before the layoffs. 

Inc42 couldn’t independently ascertain the exact number of impacted employees, as neither Kenko nor its cofounder Aniruddha Sen responded to our questions till the time of publishing this story.

The development was first reported by Entrackr, which also said the number of laid off employees could be higher than 20% of the workforce. 

The sources attributed the layoffs to the ongoing funding crunch and Kenko’s failure to generate revenue on a consistent basis.

The layoffs impacted employees from support, processing, sales and tech teams in Delhi NCR and Bengaluru offices, the sources said. Many employees were put on a performance improvement plan (PIP) and then fired without any warning, they added.

Founded in 2019 by Sen and Dhiraj Goel, Kenko provides healthcare financing through its monthly subscription plans which cover expenses like medicines, doctor fees, lab tests, mental health and OPD hospital bills.

The subscription plans for these services start at INR 175 per month and go up to INR 950 per month. The startup claims to have over 3 Lakh subscribers.

In February last year, Kenko raised a Series A round led by Peak XV Partners (then Sequoia Capital), with participation from BEENEXT, Orios, 9Unicorns and Waveform. 

The startup had said at the time that it would use the investment to ramp up hiring, strengthen product development and acquire new customers. As per LinkedIn data, the company had seen an increase of 31% in hiring since last August. 

Layoffs at Kenko come amidst the ongoing funding winter which has resulted in a number of Indian startups laying off employees. As per Inc42’s layoff tracker, at least 30,000 employees across several startups have been laid off since 2022.

Most recently, crypto exchange CoinsSwitch laid off 44 employees. Last week, Inc42 exclusively reported about Chingari firing over 50% of its workforce in a second round of layoffs.

[With inputs from Debarghya Sil]