Edtech hiring boom fizzles out – these edtech companies have laid off their employees in the last few months

Vaamanaa SethiMay 9, 2022, 14:25 IST

Canva

Big edtech players, who were once on a hiring spree, are now laying off their employees to sustain their hybrid model in the market.
However on the contrary, the edtech sector had created more than 75,000 jobs in India in the last five years
These big edtech players have laidoff in the last few months as online learning is again shifting to offline.

The schools and colleges in India have opened due to low COVID cases being reported in the country. This has led to decrease in the demand for online learning and therefore, edtech companies in India are facing a setback.

Big edtech players, who were once on a hiring spree, are now laying off their employees to sustain their hybrid model in the market.

The edtech sector created more than 75,000 jobs in India in the last five years and also helped in mitigating the job crisis during COVID-19 pandemic, revealed an analysis by the newly-formed Indian Edtech Consortium (IEC).

“Over 50,000 professionals are currently part of the EdTech ecosystem. The accelerated employment opportunity created by EdTech, which allows Indian professionals to create value globally, is particularly evident in the context of Covid-19 induced job losses in 2020,” said Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in a statement quoting IEC data.

The online higher education and learning market is poised to reach $5 billion by 2025, according to a Redseer report.

These big edtech players have laid off in the last few months as online learning is again shifting to offline:

Vedantu

BCCL

The online tutoring platform, founded by Vamsi Krishna, Saurabh Saxena, Pulkit Jain and Anand Prakash, laid off over 200 employees, according to a report by news agency IANS.

In a statement to IANS, the edtech company said on Thursday, May 5, that 6,000 employees, 120 contractors and 80 full-time academics or assistant teachers (3.5% of its total workforce) were being "re-evaluated".

"We have an annual contract with them, and at the beginning of every academic year, we follow a process of load rebalancing where we rejig pertaining to these roles, based on our growth expectations," said the company.

The online tutoring platform, founded by Vamsi Krishna, Saurabh Saxena, Pulkit Jain and Anand Prakash, laid off over 200 employees, according to a report by news agency IANS.

We have an annual contract with them, and at the beginning of every academic year, we follow a process of load rebalancing where we rejig pertaining to these roles, based on our growth expectations, said the company.

Unacademy

BCCL

The Bangalore based e-learning platform laid off their 600 employees in April as a part of their cost cutting drive, reportedly. The company fired 10 percent of its 6,000 workforce overall across the group.

Earlier, the company had also laid off around 325 part-time workers and educators on its platform.

The Gaurav Munjal-led edtech company raised its last round of funding worth $440 million in August last year and is currently valued at $3.4 billion.

Earlier, the company had also laid off around 325 part-time workers and educators on its platform.

The Gaurav Munjal-led edtech company raised its last round of funding worth $440 million in August last year and is currently valued at $3.4 billion.

WhiteHat Jr

BCCL

The Byju’s owned and operated coding platform reportedly axed 1,800 of its employees to cut costs involved in selling and supporting international markets such as the US, UK and Australia-New Zealand (ANZ), according to news platform Inc42.

However, WhiteHat Jr CEO Bajaj refuted the claim about employees being let go, and said, “There are zero layoffs categorically.” He added that there’s a misunderstanding on the motive behind the reshuffle among some employees, because of the large scale of some of these changes.

WhiteHat Jr has also shut its schools division that last year targeted to take its flagship coding curriculum to 10 lakh school students by the next academic year, according to a report by IANS.

Lido Learning

BCCL

Edtech startup Lido Learning laid off 150-200 employees in February 2022. The company had claimed that the reason behind this lay off was that these employees were underperforming and were not regular to the office.

However, some sources revealed that the startup company was facing a severe cash crunch and this was the ultimate reason behind this mass lay off.

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Edtech hiring boom fizzles out – these edtech companies have laid off their employees in the last few months

Vedantu

Unacademy

WhiteHat Jr

Lido Learning