Fintech firm PayU lays off 150 employees, says it's realigning teams

6% of total workforce of Prosus-backed firm reportedly asked to go

PayU, the fintech and payments firm backed by Prosus, will lay off 150 employees or reportedly 6 per cent of its total workforce, announcing such a decision after edtech start-ups and technology giants earlier.

"Keeping in mind our highest strategic priorities, we are realigning teams across some businesses in India. As a result of which, regretfully we will part ways with some of our colleagues. Any separations within PayU are always in accordance with the contractual terms and conditions,” said a spokesperson for PayU in a statement.

The company said that India is its largest market and remains important. “As we stay focused on our vision of creating a full stack digital financial services ecosystem in India, it's important to ensure PayU has the right structure and resources in place and is nimble enough to respond to a fast-evolving fintech market & seize the opportunities it presents.”

The company said that it does not plan any major downsizing and attritions would be part of the usual course of business.

A media report suggested that the layoffs have mainly impacted Wibmo, the digital payment security and technology unit PayU acquired in 2019. PayU did not comment on the same.

PayU’s total payment volume (TPV) grew 59 per cent to $28 billion and revenue increased 48 per cent to $183 million in HY2023, following digitalisation of e-commerce, financial services and bill payments, and a rebound in post-pandemic travel, it said in a recent financial disclosure.

Total number of transactions grew 17 per cent year-on-year, driving total payment volume (TPV) growth of 49 per cent to $46 billion. Economic interest revenue increased 55 per cent to $480m, with a trading loss of $97m.

Consolidated revenue grew 57 per cent to $412 million, on the back of growth in payments in India, Turkey and Poland, as well as scaling of the credit business in India. Consolidated trading losses expanded to US$80m, as we continued to invest in growing our credit operations in India, said the investment arm of South African multinational Nasper in its results filing.

PayU market share in India’s payment gateway market is around 30 per cent and competes with the likes of Paytm, CC Avenue and Razorpay.

PayU was also in news lately also because of its plans to acquire payment gateway player Billdesk in a deal worth $4.7 billion. However, the deal despite getting a clearance from CCI did not happen, as PayU pulled back on condition of ‘unfulfilled M&A conditions’.