Skill-Lync lays off 200 employees

Skill-Lync, an edtech startup that focuses on engineering education, recently decided to lay off over 200 employees. The company, which is based in Chennai and Palo Alto, took this step in order to reduce costs and navigate challenging market conditions. This is the second time this year that Skill-Lync has had to resort to layoffs, with the first round affecting around 300-400 employees back in April.

The primary reason behind these layoffs is the company’s struggle to secure funding. The ed-tech company which has been in operation for five years, faced a grim outlook in terms of potential investments. As a result, they needed to extend their financial runway and make strategic changes to their operations. Suryanarayanan Paneerselvam, Co-founder, Skill-Lync  confirmed the downsizing and stated that it was a necessary move to streamline their operations and limit future investments in content and production.

Approximately 225 employees, or about 20 per cent of the workforce, were affected by these layoffs. The company has received funding from investors like Iron Pillar, Y Combinator, and Better Capital, has raised a total of $20 million through seed and Series A funding rounds.

Skill-Lync’s main focus is to provide industry-relevant courses to engineering students and graduates across various fields. Despite claiming to have upskilled over 30,000 students from 80 countries, including India, the company has struggled to generate the expected revenue. This financial challenge likely played a significant role in the decision to downsize.

This situation is not unique to Skill-Lync. Several other startups in different sectors have faced similar challenges after initially raising substantial amounts of funding.