Peak XV-backed edtech startup Scaler is laying off between 100-150 employees, primarily in marketing and sales teams, in an annual restructuring effort that is aimed to reduce redundancy in roles. The layoffs will impact about 10% of its total headcount of 1,500 employees, which includes 1,000 full-time roles and about 500 contractual staff, consultants and interns.
“As part of this restructuring, we identified some functions/roles, primarily in marketing and sales, in the company that we had to part ways with. I want to reiterate that this was not a performance-driven decision and assure all those affected are provided with the necessary support to ensure a smooth transition,” its co-founder Abhimanyu Saxena said in a statement.
Besides struggling ed-tech major Byju’s firing 500 of its staffers earlier this month, this is the second round of layoffs by an ed-tech startup in India so far this year. Last year, 17 ed-tech startups had fired 4,730 employees, according to data from layoffs.fyi. This was nearly 30% of the total layoffs seen last year, amid a significant slump in funding.
In an interview with FE last year, Scaler’s Saxena had said that the company is currently Ebitda-positive and is on its path to profitability by the end of fiscal year 2023-24. It is also eyeing net profit margins of 25-30% on a topline of $150 million within the next year and a half.
In FY23, the company’s net loss had nearly doubled to `330.3 crore from `174 crore in the preceding fiscal year, while its operating revenue had jumped nearly four times to `316.7 crore.
Founded by Saxena and Anshuman Singh, who had previously worked on Facebook Messenger, Scaler primarily offers tech-related courses such as software development and data science on its platform for working professionals looking to upskill in their careers.
Scaler competes in a crowded edtech market, with players such as US-based General Assembly and Emeritus, and other upskilling platforms such as Udacity, UpGrad and Coursera.
Valued at $710 million, Scaler has so far raised $76.5 million from investors such as Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India), Tiger Global and private equity firm Lightrock, according to data from Tracxn.