RoboticWares Pvt. Ltd, which runs logistics management company FarEye, has become the latest venture capital backed startup to lay off a section of its staff after raising significant external funding last year.
FarEye "had to make some hard decisions to reduce its team across operations and services", said Kushal Nahata, chief executive officer & co-founder, FarEye, in a response to an email to VCCircle without specifying the number of staff it laid off.
News portal Inc42, citing unidentified sources, said that the company has laid off around 250 of its employees.
Nahata explained that FarEye had to let go of its staff because of its "strategic realignment" to focus its efforts and resources in areas that drive maximum value for its customers while addressing their key challenges around operational efficiencies, cost optimization, and delivery experience.
"Keeping this as the priority, we are strengthening our core competencies, deepening our focus on product differentiation, and automation, and optimizing the effort required to manage operations," noted Nahata.
He also said that the company is ensuring that the impacted staff get their benefits and entitlements. He added that the company is proactively working to help the impacted staff with job support via its outplacement services and its network.
"They are some of the best in business, I deeply value their remarkable talent and passion, and believe that they will be a great addition to any organization," he stated.
FarEye was established in 2013 by Kushal Nahata, Gautam Kumar and Gaurav Srivastava. The company’s flagship logistics management software helps the entire supply chain, from first-mile seller pick-ups to last-mile delivery. Apart from this, tech-based solutions cater to sales force automation and field workforce management.
In May last year, FarEye raised $100 million (Rs 728.4 crore) as part of its Series E funding round led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm TCV and San Francisco-based growth-oriented investment firm Dragoneer Investment Group.
Multiple startups across sectors have recently asked employees to go, potentially in a bid to conserve capital in a difficult funding environment.
Business-to-business (B2B) marketplace Yojak shut down its India operations and laid off up to 140 employees from April to May. Similarly, learning platform Udayy shut down its operations and laid off the entire workforce, comprising up to 100 staff.
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.
Earlier this year, another edtech startup Lido Learning asked 1,200 of its employees to resign, saying that it was looking to wind down its operations amid a funding crunch.
Social commerce startup Meesho laid off 150 employees last month. In February, OkCredit, which is backed by marquee investors including Tiger Global and Lightspeed, laid off around 40 employees.
