Vedantu laid off 424 employees, or about 7 per cent of its total workforce of 5,900 employees, CEO Vamsi Krishna announced today in an email to all his employees.
While saying that a decision like this was extremely difficult to take, he added that it is days like these that are heartbreaking and I hope to never see them again, he wrote in the email while explaining why the company took the decision.
Krishna said that the external macroeconomic environment is currently tough, due to the Russia-Ukraine war, impending fears of recession, and Fed interest hikes that have resulted in inflationary pressures with massive corrections in stocks globally and in India.
Capital will be scarce for the upcoming quarters due to this environment. With a receding of the COVID tailwinds, schools and offline models opening up, the hyper-growth of 9 X, Vedantu experienced during the last 2 years will also get moderated. He said that V would need to adapt for the long term sustenance of the mission.
He said that the company will fall back on its core philosophy to guide them continue innovation for the students and build a long-term sustainable company with a resilient business model.
The CEO said that the company is investing in and launching groundbreaking innovations with Ai-Live and WAVE that helped them disrupt the prices and experiment with the hybrid model to explore offline-online learning. He said it is important to have a longer capital runway to build business resilience.
The company will create a runway for at least 30 months, focus on customer acquisition cost, map the projects into core and non-core, and align all projects and teams.
A number of our Vedans will have to be let go as a result of the fact that a number of teams and projects will have to be deprioritized. This is not a reflection of the ability or performance of the impacted Vedans in any way, he said in the mail. These calls are never easy to make and let me tell you that these calls are not a reflection of the ability or performance of the impacted Vedans.
Vedantu is extending health benefits for all employees who have been laid off, giving them access to 15 doctor consultations and discounted pathology and pharmacy services through Practo until April 29, 2023. There will also be volunteer outplacement service support for resume building, interviewing preparation support, training and opportunity identification.
He told the rest of the employees that this is a one-time activity with no more cycles. In order to find new opportunities for the laid-off employees, Vedantu will do everything in their power.
It is a gut wrenching feeling to live through such a decision and feel that my decisions have led to such consequences. There is no way around this thought. He said that the way that I deal with it is to imagine this as a sacrifice for all of us so that Vedantu can continue its journey of reaching millions more and making quality teaching reach them.
5% of its workforce is employed in agriculture.