Valar Ventures-backed buy-now-pay-later platform Simpl has handed out pink slips to to a second round of employees, as part of its continued cost-cutting measures, as it aims to reduce its expenses, people aware of the development told VCCircle.
Simpl, last month, had fired more than 100 employees across verticals. However, this time around, the Bengaluru-based company has laid off around 50 mid-management employees, one of the people aware of the matter told VCCircle.
“Today’s decision to let 30 of our employees go is a continuation of our organisation-wide efforts to become a fiscally prudent company and achieve profitability by mid-2025,” said Ashish Kulshrestha, head of communications,” Simpl.
Simpl will provide a pro-rated fixed salary till the effective date, a fixed salary for the notice period of two months as per the employment agreement, and a 15-day fixed salary for every year of service with the company (rounded to the nearest whole number) to the impacted employees.
“As an organisation, we routinely review our businesses to improve efficiencies and become more agile and leaner as an organisation to drive consistent growth. Over the last few years, we have scaled our business exponentially and in order to drive this growth in a sustainable manner, we have been undertaking a series of measures to improve operational efficiencies,” said Kulshrestha.
Simpl, founded in 2016 by Nityananda Sharma and Chaitra Chidanand, offers customers a credit line for online purchases, allowing them a few days to repay without additional charges.
The startup partners with over 26,000 online stores, including Zomato, BookMyShow, Goibibo, redBus, and Zepto, enabling users to pay via Simpl at these outlets. In December 2021, Simpl raised $40 million in its Series B funding round, led by Valar Ventures and IA Ventures, with participation from LFH Ventures.
For the financial year ending in March 2023, Simpl, operated by One Sigma Technologies Pvt. Ltd, reported a revenue of Rs 87.4 crore, up from Rs 31.6 crore the previous year, according to VCCEdge, the data intelligence platform of VCCircle. However, Its net loss increased to Rs 356.7 crore from Rs 144.3 crore.
