In all, there are 80 employees leaving edtech, 40 voluntarily entering their papers, said Ashwin Damera, Co founder and CEO of Eruditus. The edtech unicorn has halved its talent acquisition team to move forward with plans to reduce hiring to 10%. According to Indian Startup Layoff Tracker, eight edtech startups have laid off 3,079 employees so far in 2022, including Eruditus
Edtech Unicorn Eruditus Trims Workforce Lays Off 40 Employees 2022
Eruditus, the Mumbai based edtech unicorn, has joined the growing list of startups laying off employees as it has laid off 40 employees from its workforce.
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Ashwin Damera, Co founder and CEO of edtech unicorn, told ET that Eruditus carried out the layoffs over the past month.
According to Damera, expects 40 employees to leave the startup in a month. This time, 40 more people were fired. Damera added that of the 80 people who have recently left the organization, 40 submitted their resignations voluntarily.
Incidentally, the edtech startup has laid off about half of its talent acquisition team, or 15 people out of the 30 person team.
Having hired 1,300 people in the last 12 months, Eruditus plans to only hire about 100 to 150 more people this year, mostly in the technology and product teams. That means Eruditus doesn’t require a huge talent acquisition team.
So that talent acquisition team, unfortunately, has been affected. And yes, we have reduced the size of that team because we don’t need the same group of people, Damera said.
Damera also said that while people are being laid off, this is not a layoff. For us, in attracting talent, we are hiring less, so we had to lay off people. Its unfortunate, but thats what it is, he said.
Founded in 2010 by Damera and Chaitanya Kalipatnapu, Eruditus offers executive education programs with business schools such as MIT, Columbia, Harvard Business School, INSEAD, and London Business School, among others, along with Indian institutions such as IIT Kozhikode and IIM Lukhnow.
These courses are typically six to eight months in length and are available on campus, off campus, and online.
Firing to achieve profitability
Amid growing concerns about shrinking funding, many prominent investors, including Eruditus backer SoftBank, have advised the startups to cut costs, strengthen unit economics, expand runway and reach profitability. . This has resulted in many new companies making layoffs to cut costs.
For Eruditus, funding is not a problem. The company has raised a total of $1 billion since August 2021. The startup had raised $350 million in debt financing by March 2022. Damera had also said the company also has a 24 month lead time. .
Damera said the startup has scaled back its expansion plans to achieve short term profitability. He stated that Eruditus’ core business in India is already profitable.
Eruditus has joined the list of edtech startups that have laid off employees in 2022. The list also includes large edtech companies Vedantu and WhiteHat Jr. In total, eight edtech startups have laid off 3,079 employees, or more of a third of total layoffs, so far in 2022.
So far, 19 startups have laid off 9,039 employees, according to Indian Startup Layoff Tracker including Eruditus.
It was far more than 40 people with many layoffs of recently hired people.