According to a person briefed on the situation, business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce startup, Udaan has laid off 180–200 employees, or 5% of its workforce. The company described the layoff as “unusual” during a Monday town hall meeting with the staff.
Unable to say how many employees were let go, a company spokesperson confirmed the news to ET.
“We keep modifying our tried-and-true business model to make it stronger, more effective, customer-centric, and agile as the market changes. In order to achieve strong unit economics, we have taken a number of steps in this direction to increase efficiency, improve our cost structure, and accelerate growth “The business declared in a statement. It was added that the “efficiency enhancement exercise” had led to some redundancies and the elimination of some roles.
“As the market shifts, we continuously improve our tried-and-true business model to make it more durable, efficient, customer-focused, and adaptable. We have made a number of moves in this direction to boost efficiency, enhance our cost structure, and speed up growth in order to achieve strong unit economics.” The company stated in a statement. The “efficiency enhancement exercise” had also resulted in some job cuts and role eliminations, it was added.
In a February interview with ET, Gupta stated that Udaan is aiming to go public by May 2023 and that the startup, which DST Global backs, has made “massive improvements” in its unit economics. Last year, Gupta was appointed CEO. While other businesses in the sector, such as ElasticRun, ShopKirana, and 1K Kirana, have been raising money, Udaan has announced layoffs.
Udaan was established in 2016 with the goal of providing groceries and other products to small mom-and-pop shops all over the nation. Sujeet Kumar, Vaibhav Gupta, and Amod Malviya, former executives at Flipkart, founded the business, which as of 2019 was the fastest to reach unicorn status.
