Unacademy Fires Another 350 Employees, Gives Compensation

Indian edtech Unicorn Unacademy fired another 350 employees. The company is giving 2 months extra salary & 1 year insurance as compensation.

In its third wave of layoffs in a year, Unacademy has let go 10% of its workforce, or around 350 workers. 

Unacademy co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal explained the need for cost-cutting measures in light of the challenging economic climate in an internal email distributed to the staff.

Unacademy co-founder and CEO Gaurab Munjal wrote to the staff in an internal email that the organization must continue to establish effective systems and optimize for leaner and more challenging times.

It is significant to note that Munjal pledged in a July internal memo to staff that there would be no additional layoffs. In the most recent email, the CEO expressed regret for his prior statement’s about-face.

“Since we promised there would be no layoffs within the company, I deeply apologize to everyone. However, market challenges have caused us to rethink our choices. Our primary business has lost a sizable chunk of its funding, and funding has slowed down dramatically.”

“The difficult economic times that everyone is experiencing these days are nothing new to us. 

For the technological ecosystem, these are extremely challenging times. And the situation is becoming worse by the hour,” Munjal wrote in the email.

“I am terribly unhappy to announce that in order to decrease redundancies in our operations, we will have to say goodbye to some of our incredibly outstanding Unacademy workers. 

These would come from verticals inside the Unacademy group where we must make the painful choice of either scaling down or shutting down,” Munjal continued.

Employees who are impacted will be notified by human resources within 48 hours, according to Munjal, who also noted that those who are laid off will receive severance compensation equal to their notice term and an extra 2 months’ income.

Additionally, Unacademy will offer personalized placement and career help along with medical insurance protection for a further year. 

“I would like to ask all departments and teams to support this transformation over the coming days since it will be about aiding the members who are departing Unacademy,” Munjal stated.

Prior to this, after implementing a performance improvement plan, Unacademy let go of 150 staff in June. 

Along with a few contract workers, educators, and tutors, the corporation also let go of 600 to 800 members of its marketing and sales department in April.

Along with “restructuring” the company, Unacademy fired over 100 members of its PrepLadder staff in March. 

In 2020, the business paid $50 million for Chandigarh-based PrepLadder, a platform for preparing for post-graduate medical admission exams.