Meesho Superstore, the grocery vertical of Meesho, witnessed a layoff of about 150 people. This is a little surprising because it was not long ago, in September 2021, that it had managed to raise funds to the tune of $570 million, which it had at the time revealed it would use to expand.
The move comes about a week after the e-commerce firm had revealed intentions of integrating the grocery arm into its main app.
According to a blog, the Company, which is backed by Softbank and Facebook among other investors, is continuing its endeavour to make “online grocery affordable for users across Tier 2+ markets”. By downsizing, it hopes it will have a leaner team and a more suitable framework capable of fulfilling the growing needs of our customers.
However, hiring is still on for other segments of the Company. The primary marketplace business of the firm remains unaffected.
While some of those affected are full-time employees, others are contractual staff hired via third parties. It is reported that these employees were asked to leave following an evaluation of various roles and in a bid to eliminate redundancies.
The social commerce platform is reportedly offering severance packages to those affected and also helping them with outplacement.
Two years ago, the Company had laid off about 200 employees. So this isn’t the first time such a trimming of the workforce is happening at the firm, which was founded in 2015 by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, both IIT-Delhi alumni.
