It's Not Just Facebook, Twitter — Indian Tech Startups Go On Firing Spree As Plump Funding Disappears

Twitter and Meta Platforms Inc. META are not the only companies sacking staff; Indian startups, too, have laid off thousands of workers recently.

What Happened: About 15,708 employees have been laid off by 44 startups in India, including ​​Tiger Global-backed unicorn Byju’s, Plum and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank SFTBY backed Ola, according to Indian Startup Layoff Tracker, via Inc42.

The trend started earlier this year with the funding drying up. This year, the startup funding is significantly lower than in the watershed year 2021, said Inc42. 

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Joining the slew of startups, on Wednesday, Bengaluru-based Plum reportedly laid off 36 employees, or around 10% of its workforce, as part of a cost-cutting exercise amid the uncertain economic environment. 

This comes days after Byju’s announced that it would begin laying off around 2,500 employees, citing job redundancy and role duplication — a reason similar to the one that Elon Musk gave while firing Twitter employees. 

Meanwhile, the company’s level of empathy while handling such situations couldn't be much worse than it is. Byju reportedly resorted to unethical means forcing employees to sign pre-drafted resignation letters and hiring bouncers to handle any untoward situation as employees were suddenly asked to leave.

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Rajiv Talreja, Indian business coach and entrepreneur, who went viral recently for calling billionaire Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK BRK-backed Paytm's IPO a "massive hype," said the startups "overhired" employees. 

"Most startups are firing because they overhired… They never had work for these people they hired. Why did they overhire? – Because of excess funding…," Rajiv Talreja tweeted. 

Earlier this year, Talreja had told Benzinga that India's startup ecosystem is in for a "major correction."

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