The edtech sector continues to witness further upheaval as Bengaluru-based Teachmint has laid off 45 employees, around 5% of its workforce, as part of its restructuring process, a person close to the development told VCCircle.
Teachmint reduced the headcount primarily from the go-to-market teams, the person said, adding that the impacted employees will get three months' severance and continued health insurance benefits for individuals and their families.
The Lightspeed-backed company is also providing outplacement support to the employees as well as offering opportunities for internal job transfers. It will also accelerate Esop (employee stock ownership plan) vesting for the severed employees, the person said.
“In an effort to build long-term efficiencies and address redundancies, we have restructured some teams. As a result, unfortunately, some roles have been impacted. The impacted employees have been informed in advance and we are supporting them to the maximum extent possible,” a company spokesperson said.
Online news portal Inc42 reported the development first.
Teachmint, which is operated by Teachmint Technologies Pvt. Ltd, focuses on tutor-student connectivity. It was founded by Mihir Gupta, Payoj Jain, Divyansh Barodia, and Anshuman Kumar in 2020.
It claims that more than 10,000 schools and over 1 crore teachers and students in 30-plus countries are registered on the platform.
Teachmint is backed by Rocketship.vc, Vulcan Capital, Goodwater Capital, Epiq Capital, Learn Capital, CM Ventures, Lightspeed India, and Better Capital, among others.
In October last year, Teachmint raised $78 million in a Series B funding round led by Rocketship.vc and Vulcan Capital at a valuation of $500 million. To date, the company has raised close to $118 million in funding.
In the edtech space, the company competes against the likes of Tiger Global-backed Classplus, Oda Class, eduZilla, and SkoolApp.
Over the past few months, startups, especially those operating in the edtech space in the country, have laid off thousands of employees as growth slows down in the post-pandemic world.
For instance, Tiger Global-backed Byju's is laying off 2,500 employees accounting for 5% of its workforce, as it aims to become profitable by March 2023. Another major edtech player, Unacademy, fired 10% of its workforce or about 350 employees in a third round of layoffs within a year.
Also, FrontRow reduced its headcount by 75%, while Vedantu and Byju’s-owned WhiteHat Jr have also sacked employees in 2022.