Upgrad lays off 120 employees in subsidiary: Report

Upgrade Campus, formerly known asIncentive, backed by Ronnie Screwvala was acquired by upgrade for in 2021 150 crores.

According to a report in the Financial Express, at least 120 employees out of 300 at Upgradation Campus, a video-learning solutions provider, have been affected by the layoffs.

It is also the second layoff at an Upgrade-owned company. Harappa Education, which was acquired for an upgrade 300 crore in July 2022, according to the report, laid off 30 per cent of its workforce in January, affecting around 60 employees.

Impartus co-founder Amit Mahensaria assumed the role of chief operating officer at Upgrade Campus, which operated independently as a subsidiary, following the acquisition.

Upgrad, founded by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar and Falgun Kompally, has made at least 14 acquisitions so far. In 2022, it acquired around five companies, including upskilling platform Harappa Education for $38 million and data science institute INSOFE for $33 million.

Ed-Tech Unicorn Byju’About 1,500 employees were laid off in the second round of layoffs. Last year, the Byju Raveendran-led startup laid off around 2,500 employees.

Edtech startups in India have laid off thousands of employees in the last one year and have been unable to raise funds due to the slowdown in the market.

Unacademy also laid off 20% of its assistant level employees in January this year.

Separately, ed-tech unicorn Physicswala is looking to hire around 2,500 employees in the first quarter of 2023.

Indian startups have seen layoffs in the past few months, with food and grocery delivery platform Swiggy laying off 380 employees from its 6,000-strong workforce as part of a restructuring exercise.

Delivery platform Dunzo laid off 3 per cent of its workforce citing restructuring. According to LinkedIn, the company has a workforce of 3,000 employees, which means it has laid off around 90 employees.