Vedantu lays off another 424 employees, blames 'scarce capital'

The decision comes just days after Vedantu had announced that it had let go of another 200 people.

Vedantu laid off 424 employees, or 7 per cent of the workforce on May 18, said the ed-tech firm days after announcing it had let go of another 200 people.

“War in Europe, impending recession fears, and Fed rate interest hikes have led to inflationary pressures with massive correction in stocks globally and in India as well. Given this environment, capital will be scarce for upcoming quarters," said the company in a blog post.

Vedantu is among online education firms battered by the coronavirus pandemic. Over the last few months, 800 people resigned from Byju’s-owned coding platform WhiteHat Jr after employees were asked to resume work from office locations.

Unacademy, a start-up in the ed-tech space, had let go of 1,000 employees earlier this year. Lido, another ed-tech platform, fired 150 employees days after it secured $10 million in funding.

As per Tracxn, there were 9,797 ed-tech start-ups in the country. Vedantu, last year, had attained unicorn status—the 28th unicorn in the country—as the company raised $100 million in Series E funding at a billion-dollar valuation. The company had raised funds in 2020 at a $600 million valuation.

The last round, in 2021, was led by Singapore-headquartered ABC World Asia, which is also backed by Temasek holdings. It had also witnessed participation from existing investors Coatue Management, Tiger Global, GGV Capital and WestBridge.

"With COVID tailwinds receding, schools and offline models opening up, the hyper-growth of 9X, Vedantu experienced during the last 2 years will also get moderated. For long term sustenance of the mission, V would need to adapt too," CEO Vamsi Krishna. 

Krishna had in April announced that the company would be IPO ready in the next 18-24 months. 

It offers individual and group classes across K-12 and test preparation segments. Students have the option to opt for individual or group classes.