Byju’s woes, new wave of layoffs signal long winter for start-ups

A new wave of lay-offs at ecommerce platforms, and the crashing world of Byju’s has brought forth starkly the shriveling up of funding for start-ups. There are many who have grown as a bubble, who now stand exposed having got their core business plans wrong.

The signs were there, but it’s now all happening. Swiggy confirmed it is laying off 400 employees or about 7% of its 6,000 workforce. The company is going in for an IPO later this year, and it appears it is cleaning up.

This is the digital delivery company’s second layoff – last year around the same time it shed 380 workmen. Flipkart too said it was letting go 1,000 employees – about 5% of its 22,000-strong workforce. It’s strange that local boss Kalyan Krishnamurthy said it was a routine, annual cutback,and claimed things were hunky-dory at the company.