In an internal message, Unacademy cofounder and CEO Gaurav Munjal said that salary cuts will depend on the current salaries of the leaders, their scope and performance
The salary cuts are permanent and can go up to 25%; the salary will be revised only in FY24: Munjal
The announcement comes a day after the edtech unicorn fired 12% of its workforce in yet another round of layoffs
The leadership team of edtech unicorn Unacademy, which has undertaken multiple rounds of layoffs amid the funding winter and business slowdown, will take up to 25% pay cuts for the financial year 2023-24 (FY24).
“Unacademy’s leadership including the founders will take a permanent salary cut. The salary
cut will depend on the current salary of the leader, their scope and performance,” Gaurav Munjal, cofounder and CEO of Unacademy, said in an internal note to the employees. Inc42 has the note sent on messaging platform Slack.
Munjal added that the salary cuts are permanent and can go up to 25%. The salaries will be revised only in April 2024.
The announcement comes a day after Unacademy fired 12% of its workforce in yet another round of layoffs.
Announcing the layoffs, Munjal said in a Slack message, “We have taken every step in the right direction to make our core business profitable, yet it’s not enough. We have to go further, we have to go deeper.”
“Unfortunately, this has led me to take another difficult decision. We will be reducing the size of our team by 12% to ensure that we can meet the goals we are chasing in the current realities we face,” he added.
Amid mounting losses and the ongoing funding winter, Unacademy is looking to turn profitable and is on a cost-cutting exercise. It has conducted four rounds of layoffs over the past 12 months and has fired over 1,500 employees starting March 2022.
The edtech unicorn reported a 85% year-on-year (YoY) rise in its consolidated net loss to INR 2,848 Cr in FY22, despite its consolidated revenue from operations jumping 80% to INR 719 Cr.
The reopening of offline coaching centres, schools and colleges post the pandemic has hurt the business of edtech companies, most of which are grappling with losses.
Vamsi Krishna-led edtech unicorn Vedantu’s net loss widened to INR 696.2 Cr in FY22 from INR 616.2 Cr in FY21. Meanwhile, BYJU’S is yet to report its financial performance for FY22. In FY21, its net loss surged 19.8X to INR 4,588 Cr. Meanwhile, PhysicsWallah, which reported a profit of INR 97.8 Cr in FY22, also seems to be at a crossroad.
As per Inc42’s layoff tracker, edtech startups, including BYJU’S, Vedantu, and Unacademy, have fired over 8,500 employees since 2022.
