4th round of layoffs at Unacademy; 12% of workforce let go

Unacademy, the edtech unicorn, has done away with 12 per cent of its workforce in a fourth round of layoffs. The platform, which offers test preparation services, is backed by Softbank.

Gaurav Munjal, co-founder, Unacademy has reportedly conveyed to the staff via an internal memo that the recent round of layoffs is an attempt to make the business profitable, and therefore, was necessary.

The laid-off employees will receive a severance equal to the notice period along with an additional month’s salary. They will also receive accelerated vesting of a year if they have been with the Company for a minimum period of a year.

Earlier this year, in January, Relevel, an ed-tech platform run by Unacademy, laid off 20 per cent of its workforce. Those who remained were at the time to be transferred to other departments of the Unacademy Group. The business was, at the time, focussing more on testing products as well as a new app known as NextLevel.

Last year, in November, the Bengaluru-based Unacademy let go 350 members of its staff when it realised that despite drastic cost cutting and dealing with redundancies it had failed to operate as a lean organisation or enhance efficiency to the desire level.

In April 2022, about 600 employees were asked to leave, with another 150 being asked to follow suit a couple of months later, in June 2022.