Startup layoffs down by nearly 70 per cent in Q3 – Jobs and Career News

As $100-million deals get back on the table and venture capital funding seems to be slowly picking up, layoffs are becoming lesser in numbers. Between July and September, 12 companies laid off about 950 employees, as per data from layoffs.fyi. This is a sharp drop compared to a similar period last year when more than 3,000 people were laid off by 33 companies.

Among the layoffs recorded during the quarter, Unacademy contributed the highest as it fired 250 employees from its marketing, business, product, and sales teams in July. In the last two years, Unacademy has cut around 2,000 jobs as it has struggled to lower its costs to turn profitable.

Besides Unacademy, audio series platform Pocket FM, which raised $103 million in funding in March, laid off 200 writers in July. Chennai-based agri-tech startup WayCool also laid off over 200 employees in July, in its third round of layoffs within the preceding 12 months.

Banks chase quick profits by selling IPO shares fast

Pierag Consulting LLP aims to achieve $50 million revenue target by FY27, says Abhishek Gupta after company rebranding

Q-comm players in race to up the order value size

Primary steel producers could report margin contraction by 60-180 bps post new cess, says ICRA

Meanwhile, health-tech startup Kenko Health, InsurStaq.ai, ed-tech platform Bluelearn, and social media platform Koo shut down during the quarter, letting go of their entire workforce. Besides them, Sharechat, Dunzo, and Byju’s Aakash have also carried out layoffs.

In the same period last year, startups including WayCool, Spinny, US-based SaaS startup Tekion, and real-money gaming platform Mobile Premier League had each laid off around 300 employees. 2023 saw the peak of funding winter with only about $11 billion in funding raised through the entire year, leading many startups to cut jobs to survive.

In the first three quarters of last year, 95 startups had laid off nearly 14,000 employees. Now compared to that, layoffs have significantly slowed since the start of the year. Till date, about 35 startups have sacked more than 8,100 employees, as per the website.

Globally, too, a similar trend can be seen. So far this year, 438 tech companies have laid off 137,500 employees compared to 1,039 companies laying off 237,985 during the same period last year.