Unicorn startup Udaan lays off 180 employees to cut costs, enhance efficiency
The company achieved unicorn status in 2018 after receiving $225 million from DST Global and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Udaan, a Bengaluru-based business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, has laid off approximately 180-200 individuals, representing a 4-5 percent reduction in its workforce.
The layoffs have occurred at a time when the Bengaluru-based corporation is attempting to become a publicly traded entity within the next 18-24 months. It is focusing on positive unit economics and tracking the firm's quarterly performance for this purpose.
The company has employee strength of around 4,000. The lay off comes in a move of efficiency enhancement exercise, Economic Times has reported citing company spokesperson.
"As the market evolves, we continue to tweak our already proven business model to make it stronger, more efficient, customer-centric and agile. In this direction, we have taken various steps to enhance efficiency, refine our cost structure and grow faster in our journey to achieve strong unit economics," the company said in a statement.
The “efficiency enhancement exercise" has resulted in certain redundancies, with some roles no longer required, it added.
After the central government declared a lockdown to stop the spread of the contagious Covid-19 in April 2020, Udaan reportedly fired a large number of contract workers in an effort to conserve money in anticipation of a spike in demand.
The company achieved unicorn status in 2018 after receiving $225 million from DST Global and Lightspeed Venture Partners as part of its Series C fundraising round.
The development has come just six months after it had raised $250 Mn in a convertible note round from investors such as Microsoft, M&G Prudential, Kaiser Permanente, Nomura, TOR, Arena Investors, Samena Capital and Ishana Capital.
Udaan was founded in 2016 by ex Flipkart employees- Amod Malviya, Sujeet Kumar and Vaibhav Gupta. It unites wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers, and traders under one roof and gives them access to a wide range of clients, vendors, and products. In order to achieve more benefit, traders can communicate with one another directly through the site.