Edtech startup Udayy shuts shop in India, fires entire workforce
India Today
After Unacademy, Vedantu, another edtech startup Udayy has fired over 100 employees and closed its operations in India.
Startups across the country are finding it hard to keep up with inflation. After Unacademy, Vedantu, another edtech startup, Udayy, bites the dust. While Vedantu and Unacademy have only laid off a certain percentage of their workforce, Udayy has completely shut its business in India. The ed-tech company suffered huge losses when the schools reopened after a hiatus of two years.
Saumya Yadav, the co-founder of the company, said that Udayy was facing roadblocks in growing the model of online school when the schools reopened. “Udayy was witnessing the post-pandemic world for the first time. As the kids went back to school, we faced roadblocks in growing the original model of online, live learning. We evaluated multiple strategies and adjacent pivots. However, none of them were promising enough,” she said.
Yadv added, “After a lot of deliberation, we decided that it’s better to shut down the business than to spend more time and capital on it. Our investors, team members, and customers have been very supportive.”
Over 100 employees who were part of the startup were asked to leave. However, Yadav noted that the employees who lost their jobs will be given a severance package. She also added that the company will help find the employees new jobs.
Yadave, one of the co-founders of the company, said that they have refunded money to the customers who paid for their services and also paid generous severance to the team members and teachers who were a part of Udayy. Yadav claims that they have helped place nearly 100 percent of their employees into new jobs at other promising companies. The company is also returning the remaining capital, around USD 8.5 million, back to the investors.”
Udayy was co-founded by IIT Delhi and Stanford University alumni Yadav, Mahak Garg, and Karan Varshney, alumni of IIT Delhi and Stanford University. Uday joins the list of startups that had fired employees in the first quarter of 2022. So far, the Indian startups have fired more than 5600 employees.
To quote the exact figures, Ola has laid off close to 2100 employees in the first quarter of 2022, followed by Unacademy with 926 layoffs, Vedantu has laid off more than 600 employees whereas Cars24 has laid off around 600 employees. The newly founded Meesho, which was supposedly doing good in terms of revenue, has let go of around 150 employees in just a couple of years after its inception.
