Vedantu has laid off nearly 200 employees from its 6,000-employee strong workforce.
New Delhi: Vedantu is the latest edtech startup that has laid off its employees. The unicorn company has laid off nearly 200 employees. The layoffs at Vedantu have come at a time when major Indian edtech startups such as Unacademy, Lido Learning, and WhiteHat Jr, among others, have recently let go hundreds of their employees.
In a statement to IANS, Vedantu said that from over 6,000 employees, 120 contractors and 80 full-time academics or assistant teachers (3.5 per cent of its total workforce) were being “re-evaluated”.
“We have an annual contract with them, and at the beginning of every academic year, we follow a process of load rebalancing where we rejig pertaining to these roles, based on our growth expectations,” the company told the agency.
According to Vedantu, “reassessment cannot be done in the middle of the year as the learning experience and continuity of the teachers throughout the year is our first priority”
“With more technology intervention, restructuring of the class format, and changes in the categories, we relook at these roles of our academics and assistant teachers,” said the edtech platform.
“As we synchronise our growth goals for this year, we are also hiring more than 1,000 employees in various teams including more than 100 for similar positions,” a company spokesperson told IANS.
Currently, the edtech industry is facing turbulent times, as schools across the country reopen after almost two years. With schools and colleges now 100 per cent open, edtech companies are witnessing a significant dip in the demand for online learning. Companies are either shutting shop or cutting down on their budgets.
In the past few months, edtech unicorn laid off nearly 600 employees, contractual workers and educators — nearly 10% of its 6,000-strong workforce. Also, IANS reported that WhiteHat Jr asked its nearly 3,000 sales and support employees to report to either Mumbai or Gurugram (out of its 5,000-strong workforce that includes teachers who are on a contractual basis and hence not full-time employees), from April 18, forcing most of them to tender their resignations.
