It hasn’t been very long since Vedantu, the Bengaluru-based ed-tech firm, achieved unicorn status following a $100 million funding round last year. Now, it has let go 200 employees, both full time and contractual, as part of the Company’s efforts to rebalance and revamp the workforce, and also cut costs.
Vedantu Innovation, the startup which runs a live tutoring platform, had a 6,000-strong workforce, of which 3.5 per cent were primarily teachers. As per the yearly contract with these teachers, there is a re-evaluation process wherein the team is revamped and reassessed based on their performance and the expectations of the Company.
The layoffs have come close on the heels of the opening of Vedantu’s new office in Bengaluru. With offline classes having resumed across educational institutes in the country, the platform had reportedly reduced the fee for its courses by up to 70 per cent.
However, the startup also reveals that it intends to hire over a 1,000 employees, including teachers and academics, to fulfil the demand from new users.
Established by Anand Prakash, Pulkit Jain, Saurabh Saxena, and Vamsi Krishna, in 2011, Vedantu offers free as well as paid online classes to K12 students, as well as those preparing for IIT-JEE, NEET, and other competitive exams.
The edtech startup had managed to gather funds to the tune of about $290 million, from various investors, including Accel, Tiger Global, Coatue and WestBridge Capital.
