Fintech startup Khatabook, which counts Peak XV, Tencent and Alkeon Capital among its backers, has joined the long list of Indian startups to have laid off employees as a cost-cutting measure amid the ongoing funding slump.
The company has recently laid off around 40 employees or about 6% as part of business reorienting.
"In line with our profitability goals, we are reorienting some parts of our business which requires us to operate with a leaner team on certain business lines. This restructuring has impacted 6% of our employees,” a Khatabook spokesperson told VCCircle.
Khatabook is providing all impacted employees with a separation package that covers three months of pay, a stock vesting option, health insurance extension and other job search-related support, the spokesperson added.
The company had last raised $100 million from Tribe Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures and others in August 2021 at a valuation of $600 million. In total, the company has raised about $187 million so far. Its other investors include Tencent, DST Global Partners, Y Combinator, B Capital and Alpha Wave Global (erstwhile Falcon Edge Capital), among others.
The layoffs at Khatabook come at a time when the company is looking to achieve profitability by the first quarter of the next financial year. The company’s spokesperson claimed that the startup has optimised non-people-related expenses by 50% over the last 12 months.
The spokesperson also claimed that Khatabook’s revenue has grown more than 3x in the last 12 months while the startup has reduced its burn by 50%. “We expect this revenue growth to continue as we aim to achieve profitability by Q1 of the next financial year primarily driven by growth in our financial services business,” the spokesperson said.
As a result, the company doesn’t foresee the need for any other people-related cost rationalisation measures in the future, the spokesperson added.
Khatabook was founded in 2018 by Naresh and Dhanesh Kumar, with Jaideep Poonia and Ashish Sonone. In November 2021, the company had shut down its digital online storefront for kiranas—MyStore, which provided micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with a platform to do online business.
