The ed-tech industry topped the list of sectors that conducted the highest number of layoffs in the year 2022, according to layoffs.fyi, a company tracking website. Over 14,000 employees are believed to have lost their jobs in the sector so far due to a downturn in the market. Major companies such as Byju’s, Unacademy, Vedantu, among others alone are reported to have slashed 7,000 jobs.
FE Education looks at some of the major ed-tech players which laid off staffers in 2022:
Byju’s
Ed-tech major, Byju’s is believed to have slashed 25% of its workforce by firing around 12,000 employees. In an ‘apology’ letter to the employees, the company’s CEO, Byju Raveendran, termed the move as a result of adverse microeconomic factors and effort to sustain during a tough phase. Contrary to media reports, Raveendran claimed that the step would impact only five percent of employees and termed the layoff as a small “time off” before the company is able to turn profitable again. Furthermore, several of the company’s staffers alleged Raveendran of aggressive behaviour and called out the abusive and harsh working conditions at Byju’s as reported by TheMorningContext.
Unacademy
Gaurav Munjal, Hemesh Singh and Roman Saini headed Unacademy made it to the headlines for several rounds of layoffs this year. The company cut 10% of its workforce citing harsh economic conditions. As many as 600 people may have lost their jobs due to the company’s shredding. According to Munjal as reported by news agency Reuters, the company tried to avoid the layoffs by curbing its spend on marketing and operational costs but it was not enough. “Funding has significantly slowed down and a large portion of our core business has moved offline,” Munjal said in a letter to its employees verified by Reuters.
Coursera
Joining the layoff fiasco, MOOC provider Coursera CEO, Jeff Maggioncalda, too penned an email to its employees announcing its decision to downsize the company’s strength to cope up with its “slow growth”. However, the exact number of employees to be sacked was not revealed in the email. The company employs over 1,100 people.
Vedantu
Another ed-tech unicorn, Vedantu is reported to have terminated over 1,000 staffers in four rounds of layoffs so far. The company recently sacked 385 employees and 624 in May earlier this year. Financial Express learnt from certain employees that they were forced to give resignation by the company. However, Vedantu refused to comment on the news. The company has announced to launch its IPO in FY26, which is why it has decided to let go of some of its employees to save on cost.
upGrad
Higher education ed-tech player upGrad is also expected to cut a major chunk of its employee workforce amid the deepening of layoff winter. According to news agency IANS, the company may axe one third of its workforce or even more. This could lead to sacking of hundreds of employees in the days to come, the agency added. Denying the news, upGrad in an official statement said, “We deny any cutbacks over team strengths at ‘One upGrad’. In the last 60 days, we have added over 2,000 to our team strength and just in the last two weeks, we have remained as a net hirer of 200. As shared officially last month, we have also entered into additional premises across India of over 100,000 sq feet to strengthen our business footprints. As we consolidate our M&As, there will always be an ongoing assessment of both – profile redundancy and performance, but this is also to confirm that between now and March 2023, ‘One upGrad’ will add another 500 employees to its team strength across India. We, therefore, categorically deny any vested interest or rumours about layoffs, large or small.”