According to media sources, the edtech firm Byju’s has cut off over 1,500 staff in a second round of layoffs.

The layoffs have primarily affected staff in the design, engineering, and production departments. In October, Byju’s lay off approximately 2,500 workers, or 5% of the workforce. Byju’s has laid off around 1,500 workers, claiming cost efficiency and outsourcing of operations, according to four sources acquainted with the case who spoke to Mint.

Byju’s founder and chief executive officer Byju Raveendran guaranteed employees in October that there would be no additional layoffs beyond the planned 2,500. According to a source quoted by Mint, the corporation intends to outsource certain responsibilities in teams such as operations, logistics, customer service, engineering, sales, marketing, and communications.

“The layoffs occurred now because management desired to have the new partners in place prior to letting go of the current personnel,” one of the aforementioned sources explained. An employee who was directly affected by the layoffs reported that there was no email or other kind of internal communication regarding the terminations. According to Mint, the employees were summoned to the workplace and handed pink slips immediately.

Currently, the organisation communicates with employees primarily via WhatsApp. I speculate that this is because they desire little email leakage… The employer has informed us of a severance payout upon the expiration of our notice period,” the employee added.

The latest round of layoffs at the Tiger Global-backed edtech unicorn occurs at a time when the startup ecosystem is experiencing an ongoing funding crisis. In just the first two weeks of January 2023, at least 1500 startup employees lost their jobs. More than 22,000 people have been laid off in the past year.

This time, even vice presidents and executives are affected. While the bulk, or 95%, of the workforce that was let go had entry-level positions, some of the function heads who were let go held VP or senior-level positions… A significant amount of overhiring had occurred over the preceding few years. This was inevitable, claimed a former Byju’s employee.

Byju’s recorded a net loss of 4,589 crore for FY21, compared to 262 crore the previous year. This action can be interpreted as the company’s endeavour to move toward profitability. Byju’s stated that its revenue for the same year was revised to 2,280 crore after 40% was delayed to coming years as a result of the adoption of a new revenue recognition system.