BENGALURU: 500 employees have been laid off altogether by Edtech company BYJU'S group companies-WhiteHat Jr and Toppr. The layoffs come at a time when edtech startups are struggling and are terminating employees, citing cost-cutting measures, business restructuring and a capital crunch.
In 2020, BYJU'S acquired the online coding platform WhiteHat Jr. This startup has fired nearly 300 employees. Around 250 employees give in their resignations in April Earlier in April, when they were asked to return to the office by the company.
A Whitehat Jr. spokesperson said about the layoffs, "to realign with our business priorities, we are optimising our team to accelerate results and best position the business for long-term growth." The previous year, BYJU'S bought Toppr, which provides a learning app for kindergarten to K-12, for $150 million. This learning platform has laid off around 200 employees.
About the layoff, BYJU'S spokesperson said, "To recalibrate our business priorities and accelerate our long-term growth, we are optimising our teams across our group companies."
Recently, edtech unicorn Vedantu laid off 424 employees and expects a fund shortage in the upcoming quarters. It also says capital will be low in the coming quarters. In addition to Vedantu, FrontRow and Unacademy laid off several of their employees. Udayy, another edtech start-up that launched in April 2020 during the Pandemic period, shut down its operations.