Umang Bedi, a co-founder of VerSe, stated that the compensation reduction was implemented to guarantee sustained, profitable growth.
VerSe Innovation Pvt. Ltd., the parent company of news aggregator Dailyhunt and short-video platform Josh, has added its name to the growing list of companies that have fired employees and given a cost cut as the primary justification. As it looks to reduce costs and streamline operations, it has laid off 150 employees, or 5% of its workforce, as part of its mid-year performance review.
After raising $805 million at a valuation of $5 billion, the company has decided to reduce the salary of the employees earning Rs. 10 lakh per annum. CPP Investments, which contributed $425 million to the investment round in April of this year, served as its leader. Additionally taking part in the round were the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, Sumeru Ventures, Luxor Capital, Sofina Group, and Baillie Gifford.
VerSe co-founder Umang Bedi said, “Considering the economic climate, we have evaluated our strategic priorities. For the long-term viability of our business and our people, we have taken steps to implement our regular bi-annual performance management cycle and made performance and business considerations to streamline our costs and teams."
Bedi further said that salary cuts have been done to ensure long-term profitable growth. “We have exercised fiscal and employee prudence, and implemented an 11 per cent salary cut for individuals with annual salaries of Rs 10 lakh or more.”
According to the reports, VerSe Innovation extensively invested in Josh, a platform that competes with Meta's Instagram Reels, Google's YouTube Shorts, and ShareChat's Moj and Takatak short video services, in order to build the platform.
Google, Microsoft- based VerSe Innovation has joined a growing list of tech startups that have announced drastic cost-cutting measures and employee layoffs as an investment in the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world has decreased due to macroeconomic headwinds.
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 "Dailyhunt, Josh’s parent firm VerSe lays off 150 employees, announces 11% salary cuts")
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