In an effort to cut costs and streamline operations, ed-tech start-up Teachmint has announced a second round of layoffs within six months. According to a report by MoneyControl, the move will affect 70 more employees, as the company looks to eliminate role redundancies. With this round of layoffs, Lightspeed Ventures-backed firm Teachmint has now sacked more than 110 employees since December 2021, when it dismissed 45 workers.
According to the report, the Co-founder and CEO of the company Mihir Gupta informed about the layoffs at a town hall on May 4.
Citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter, the report said that Gupta told employees that the company had to cut jobs purely because of role redundancies and it was not performance-based.
Although Teachmint has confirmed the layoffs, it has not officially disclosed the number of affected employees.
“Some roles have been unfortunately impacted as we work on increasing structural efficiencies in our operations. We have proactively communicated to the impacted colleagues and are working on providing them comprehensive support,” a spokesperson for Teachmint said, according to MoneyControl.
According to the company, the laid-off employees will be getting three months of payroll support, six months of continued health insurance benefits, for individuals and families, and continued access to mental health counselors for individuals and families. The company will also be providing outplacement support and the vesting of ESOPs (employee stock option plan) would be accelerated for eligible employees, the company said.
With this layoff round, the company has joined other ed-tech start-ups like Unacademy, Vedantu, and Byju's to undertake multiple rounds of layoffs.
Teachmint was established in 2020 by Gupta, Payoj Jain, Divyansh Barodia, and Anshuman Kumar as a teaching platform that prioritizes mobile and video usage, enabling the digitization of classrooms. It has garnered $118 million in funding so far from numerous global venture capital companies such as Rocketship.VC, Vulcan, and Better Capital, in addition to Lightspeed Venture Partners. The start-up's last valuation stood at $500 million, the report said.
Adding, Teachmint's earnings from operations in FY 2021-22 amounted to Rs. 80 lakhs, while the company incurred a loss of Rs. 131.7 crore in the same fiscal year. The company made four acquisitions in 2021, namely MyClassCampus, Teachmore, Teachee's India team, and Airlearn, as part of its efforts to diversify and expand its operations.
In November 2021, Teachmint launched an innovative ESOP program called the "Continuous Liquidity Plan" to retain talent in a highly competitive startup job market. This program allows employees to sell their vested stock options at any time, rather than waiting for traditional events such as funding rounds, buybacks, or founder decisions.