From Paytm to Flipkart, India's top startups let go of thousands of employees in 2024
In 2024, Paytm accounted for 3,500 layoffs, which represented 49 per cent of the total layoffs. Other notable layoffs included Flipkart (1,100-1,500 employees), Unacademy (900 employees), Byju's (500 employees), etc.
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India's leading startups in edtech, fintech, agritech, and other sectors sacked nearly 10,000 employees in 2024, while over 5,000 startups ceased operations, an analysis of publicly available industry reports showed. Around 7,000 employees received pink slips in the first six months of 2024, primarily due to high cash burn, low customer retention, and mounting operational costs. In 2024, Paytm accounted for 3,500 layoffs, which represented 49 percent of the total layoffs. Other notable layoffs included Flipkart (1,100-1,500 employees), Unacademy (900 employees), Byju's (500 employees), Swiggy (400 employees), and Ola Electric (300-400 employees), respectively.
Layoffs.fyi reported that other Indian startups that laid off employees in 2024 included Bengaluru-based financing startup Klub that laid off between 60-70 employees, reducing the company's staff to 45 from 100. BeepKart, a Bengaluru-based full stack retailer of used two-wheelers, laid off more than 100 employees in 2024. Byju’s-owned Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) sacked 80 to 100 employees while Dunzo let go of 150 employees, approximately 75 percent of its workforce in 2024. ReshaMandi, a business-to-business (B2B) marketplace focused on silk products, having debt of more than Rs 300 crore, laid off 80 percent of its employees after it failed to secure Series B funding. Chennai-based agriculture supply chain startup WayCool Foods laid off over 200 employees in July and 70 people in February. Bengaluru-based consumer credit startup Simpl let go off nearly 190 people in 2024 in two-round of layoffs. Both Cult.fit and Cure fit also fired more than 100 employees each across sales, marketing and other roles in 2024.
According to the government data, 5,063 startups — 3.3 percent of the total registered startup count have been categorised as closed, that is dissolved or struck-off so far. In 2024, 12 Indian startups got shut, including social media platform Koo, agri-tech startup Greenikk, among others. Greenikk shut its operations due to loan defaults by borrowers. Additionally, Peak XV and Tiger Global-backed Toplyne shut down its operation in October this year. Stoa School, which offered an MBA boot camp program, also closed its services after operating for more than four years.GenAI startup InsurStaq.ai, founded by Mayan Kansal, and Shivam Kaushik in 2022, also dissolved its operation in September. Kenko Health, job finding platform Bluelearn, neobanking startup Muvin, fintech Goldpe, and spiritual startup My Tirth India are among the list of startups that failed to survive due to varied reasons- debt, poor management, operational and financial crisis, etc.
Separately, among the 116 unicorns in India, 2.53 lakh employees quit between January and August 2024 as per the PrivateCircle data due to layoffs or voluntarily quitting their jobs. However, Indian unicorns like Zerodha, Zoho, and MapMyIndia maintaindc attrition rates of around 1 percent or lower, while Ather Energy, Druva, Dream Sports, Icertis, and Uniphore among others had attrition rates below 2 percent.
