B2B unicorn Udaan has fired 180 executives as part of cost rationalization, a person familiar with the development said.
The company confirmed the development and said that this was being done as part of the company’s drive towards “efficiency”.
“We believe in efficiency as a driver of profitable growth and have already made significant progress towards building a sustainable business. 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. However, the efficiency enhancement exercise has also resulted in certain redundancies in the system with some roles no longer required,” Udaan said in a statement.
The company did not confirm the number of employees that were laid off.
News website Inc42 first reported the development.
Former Flipkart employees Amod Malviya, Sujeet Kumar and Vaibhav Gupta co-founded Udaan in 2016. It connects traders, wholesalers, retailers and manufacturers on a single platform, allowing them to find clients, suppliers and products across categories and connect with one another directly for the cheapest price.
The company raised $250 million in capital in the form of convertible notes in January 2022. It has raised $1.4 billion in capital so far.
It is the most recent startup to lay off employees this year as part of cost optimizing efforts across the industry.
This year, over 10,000 employees have been laid off as startups grapple with a funding crunch due to market volatility and tense geopolitical situations. Earlier this month, Norwest Venture Partners-backed CityMall laid off 191 employees.
In June, Roboticwares Pvt. Ltd, which runs logistics management company Fareye, laid off around 250 of its employees.
Last month, digital health platform Mfine laid off over 50% of its staff, while used cars platform Cars24 asked 600 employees to leave and edtech startup Vedantu laid off 424 employees.
In March and April, Unacademy, operated by Sorting Hat Technologies Pvt. Ltd, laid off nearly 800 employees.
