Facebook-backed Meesho lays off 150 employees in restructuring of grocery business

• Last week, Meesho had restructured and rebranded its grocery business to Meesho Superstore.
• The company has emphasised that all impacted employees have received severance packages and outplacement assistance.
• It also mentioned that the redundancies do not impact its core Meesho marketplace business, where they continue to hire.

Facebook-backed ecommerce company Meesho has laid off 150 employees from its grocery business, which was restructured and rebranded to Meesho Superstore last week. The seven-year-old company had decided to integrate its grocery vertical into the main shopping app in this restructuring, which led to a few “redundancies”.

Meesho has confirmed the layoffs, highlighting that the impacted employees have received severance packages and outplacement assistance to secure new opportunities outside the company. “About 150 full time employees will be impacted by the restructuring of Meesho Superstore, which is aimed at bringing in efficiencies,” the company’s spokesperson told Business Insider.

The company currently has a workforce 2,000 employees and it is not planning to downsize any further.

The company, in a blog post published on Monday, also mentioned that the redundancies do not impact its core Meesho marketplace business, where they continue to “hire and grow” talent.

The report by The Economic Times also noted that sources aware of the development had mentioned that around 400 employees were impacted by Meesho’s downsizing. Meesho has denied this claim.

Secondly, the sources also mentioned that Meesho is looking to pivot its grocery business to do away with its reliance on city-level executives. Thirdly, the layoffs were an attempt to reduce Meesho’s cash burn, the sources said.

Founded in 2015 by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho is an ecommerce company that has raised over a billion dollars till date. The company’s investors include Meta (formerly known as Facebook), SoftBank, Trifecta Capital Advisors, Fidelity Management and Research Company and others.

The company was valued at $4.9 billion in September 2021.

Meesho posted a revenue of ₹792.8 crore in the fiscal year 2021 and its losses were at ₹498.6 crore, as per regulatory filings. It competes with ecommerce titans like Amazon, Flipkart and JioMart.

The company offers over 700 categories, pan-India logistics, payment services and support capabilities to its customers.

SEE ALSO
TCS, Wipro, Maruti Suzuki, JSW Steel among hot stocks to watch out for on April 12
India likely to miss 2022 solar target by 27%, says report
OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite 5G, Nord Buds teased — expected to launch soon in India