WayCool Cuts Over 200 Jobs In Another Round Of Layoffs Within Five Months

Chennai-based WayCool has initiated another round of layoffs just within five months of sacking at least 70 employees as the agritech startup looks to streamline its business operations.

As per Moneycontrol’s report, the company has cut over 200 jobs across several verticals in its third layoff exercise within a year, impacting employees across Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and its subsidiaries — CensaNext and BrandNext.

This comes at a time when the company looks to streamline its operations to cut down losses after struggling to close funding.

Sources close to the development have confirmed to Inc42 about the layoff exercise, without further disclosing the number of impacted employees.

“Each of WayCool’s businesses is executing their plans to get to profitability. As part of this, roles and structures are further simplified and automated. This will be a continual process,” a WayCool spokesperson told Inc42 in a statement.

“The company has already received 75% of the capital from its bridge round and will complete the round by August. This gives it adequate capital runway to get past the cash profitability milestone,” the spokesperson added.

Founded in 2015 by Karthik Jayaraman and Sanjay Dasari, WayCool is an agritech company that sells its food products under seven different labels, while also offering supply chain tech solutions. The company has raised a total funding of around $300 Mn so far, and is backed by investors such as Lightrock, Lightbox, Lightsmith, 57 Stars, and FMO.

Sources attributed the latest layoff exercise to the company’s worsening financial woes, including delayed salaries and client payments, the report said.

Last year, it was reported that WayCool fired 300 employees in a restructuring exercise.

Back then TOI reported that the startup, which raised more than $350 Mn in funding, has conducted the restructuring to chase profitability.