New Delhi: Unacademy, one of the biggest Edtech start-up company in the country, has retrenched about 1,000 employees sending shockwaves to lakhs of jobs aspirants. What has left industry startled that it is one the biggest Edtech companies and comes just next to Byju’s in terms of revenue.
The start-up laid off around 1,000 employees over past few weeks, apparently as part of its cost-cutting exercise. The sacked employees pertain to various departments and include both on-roll staff and contractual staff.
The edtech start-up began its business as a YouTube channel in 2015 and soon went on to become an industry giant in just a couple of years.
Out of about 1,000 sacked staff, 600 employees are from verticals like sales, business & other functions while about 3,00 are educators on contract. According to reports, 600 employees were told to leave the company as company battles many headwinds braces itself amid slowdown in the business venture.
“Unacademy is looking to bring down their cash burn from each cost center and have therefore undertaken this move,” ET reported quoting one of the staff.
Unacademy’s rise from start-up to ‘unicorn’
The start-up company, founded in 2015, saw a dream run since its foundation and went on to carve a name for itself. In August 2021, it raised $440 million from Singapore’s Temasek and was valued at $3.4 billion.
Till date, the company has raised more than $800 million till date from marquee investors like Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal, Oyo’s Ritesh Agarwal, General Atlantic & others.
Today, the company is one of the highest valued edtech companies in the country and is ranked just after Byju’s.
