Edtech unicorn Eruditus lets go of 40 employees
The SoftBank-backed company joins the list of edtech startups which have been in cash conservation mode as funding dries up
After a spate of lay-offs by Indian startups in the edtech space, Group has reportedly let go of 40 people, including 15 from its talent acquisition team. In an interview Co-founder and CEO, Ashwin Damera, said that an additional 40 employees resigned voluntarily, taking the tally to 80 people.
With this, Accel and SoftBank backed edtech unicorn Eruditus joins the ranks of peers like Unacademy, BYJU’s-backed WhiteHatJr and Vedantu, who have let go of over 1,800 permanent and contract staff in 2022.
The development was first reported by The Economic Times which stated that the Eruditus Group had let go of 50 percent of its talent acquisition team. In an interview with Moneycontrol, the CEO said that apart from 15 employees in talent acquisition, employees from other functions including marketing were let go.
Request for comments from the company did not elicit a response till the time of publishing this article.
With offline classrooms and courses opening up and growth rounds drying out, edtech startups in India have gone on a cash conservation mode, letting go of talent in non-core functions.
Of the global employee base of 2,300 at Eruditus Group, nearly 1,500 are based in India. Emeritus, part of the Eruditus Group, raised $350 million in debt financing from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to power its global mergers and acquisition strategy. With the debt round, the startup has raised a total of $1 billion across debt and equity since August 2021. The Eruditus Group was valued at $3.2 billion in its equity round from SoftBank, concluded in August 2021.
Founded in 2010 by Ashwin Damera and Chaitanya Kalipatnapu, Eruditus Group offers certification courses from global universities targeted at working professionals. In a recent release, the company had said that the Emeritus arm of business was on track to clock $500 million in gross bookings for its courses for the financial year 2021-22.
Edited by Anju Narayanan