Year Ender 2023: More than 15,000 employees laid off in India's 100 startups, year full of troubles for emerging companies

Startups in trouble due to these reasons

Indian startups were seen struggling for funding in 2023. The condition of these companies started deteriorating after Covid-19. New people were given jobs to meet the increased demand during the lockdown. As demand decreased, jobs were taken away from these people. Due to lack of funding, companies had to seriously reduce expenses. Due to economic slowdown in America and Europe, these startups were also adversely affected. Reports of IMF and World Bank also expressed the fear of global recession. Due to this, layoffs were done on a large scale. The strict rules of the Government of India also weighed heavily on them.

AI hits Paytm employees

Due to the increasing use of AI in Paytm, about 10 percent employees were reduced. More than 1,000 employees of Paytm were fired from their jobs. Payment, loan, operation and sales divisions have been the biggest victims of layoffs. 

Byju Ravindran mortgaged his house to distribute salary  

Byju laid off 2,500 employees in its second round of layoffs this year. Byju's founder Byju Raveendran even mortgaged his house to distribute the salaries of the employees.

Three rounds of layoffs in Meesho

E-commerce website Meesho laid off thrice. The company has sent about 15 percent of its employees home. According to an email from Vidit Athreya, the company's founder and CEO, the affected employees were given one month's additional salary. another E-commerce platform Udaan (B2B) furloughed 150 employees. 

Major layoffs in Mohalla Tech and Dunzo

Mohalla Tech Private Limited, which runs ShareChat and Moz, laid off about 20 percent of its employees in 2023 and Dunzo laid off 30 percent of its employees. Both the companies are facing cash crunch. About 1300 employees have been laid off from Mohalla Tech. This phase of layoffs may continue in 2024 also. Grocery delivery platform Dunzo About 300 employees have been expelled. 

Swiggy's meat marketplace closed, last day of ZestMoney 31st December 

Swiggy has laid off 380 employees from its product, engineering and operation departments. Besides, the meat marketplace has also been closed. Fintech Company ZestMoney had recently announced the final shutdown on December 31 after the acquisition talks with PhonePe ended. This startup could not bear the brunt of RBI's strictness on Buy Now Pay Later scheme and it had to close the shutters. 

200 people fired from Ola, CoinDCX also took a difficult decision 

Ola laid off around 200 employees in 2023. The laid off people worked in Ola Cabs and its subsidiaries Ola Financial Services Private Limited and Ola Electric. On the other hand, The founders of crypto exchange CoinDCX, Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal, had announced through a blog post the termination of jobs of about 12 percent of the employees. Crypto startups are struggling with the rules of the Indian government. Due to high tax and TDS, their trading volume has decreased by 90 percent in one year. 

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