Sequoia-Backed Bounce Lays Off 3-4% Workforce In Restructuring Drive

Bike rental and electric vehicle startup Bounce has laid off around 3-4% of its total workforce as part of an ongoing ‘restructuring drive’ at the firm. 

A company spokesperson told Inc42 that the employees were “let go off” phase wise and the exercise largely affected the non-original equipment manufacturer (OEM) vertical. As per the company, the layoffs largely affected customer service and other segments.

A Moneycontrol report, however, said that the bike rental startup fired nearly 5% of its employees in the layoff exercise which impacted 40-50 employees across customer support, finance, and other segments.

As per reports, Bounce has nearly 500-700 employees in the country. 

With the announcement, Bounce has become the fourth major Indian startup whose layoffs have come to light in the first six days of 2023. 

Founded in 2014 by Anil G, Varun Agni, and Vivekananda Hallekere, Bounce began its operations as a bike rental platform but pivoted to the EV segment last year. It manufactures EV scooters and allows customers to directly rent out its scooters from designated points. 

The startup last raised a funding of $105 Mn in a Series D round in January 2020 from Accel partners, B Capital and others. It has raised more than $214.2 Mn funding in multiple rounds since its inception.

In the bike rental space, Bounce largely competes with players such as Vogo, Wicked Ride, and ONN Bikes. In the EV space, it locks horns with giants such as Ola Electric, Ather, Okinawa, and PureEV. 

Layoffs Galore

In the past 72 hours, Inc42 reported that upGrad-owned edtech platform Harappa Education laid off more than 40% of its workforce, while B2B industrial goods marketplace Moglix fired around 40 employees.

Besides, rollup ecommece platform UpScalio sacked 15% of its employees in December 2022. 

As per Inc42’s layoff tracker, Indian startups have fired more than 18,000 employees in the last year. The retrenchments have largely been attributed to the ongoing funding winter and macroeconomic headwinds. 

Despite the layoffs, the electric vehicle space continues to scale up exponentially. The total number of EVs registered in the country stood at 10 Lakh units in 2022, up 300% from 3.2 Lakh units in 2021.

According to a report, the Indian EV market was pegged at $1.45 Bn in 2021 and is expected to soar to $113.9 Bn by 2029.

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