Lendingkart lays off 30% of its workforce

Digital lending platform Lendingkart has laid off 30% of its workforce or 200 employees as the company has been going through a tough time due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Lendingkart provides collateral-free working capital loans ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 40 lakh to small businesses and MSMEs, who have taken a big hit during the current uncertain time. 

“The ongoing period has had a debilitating effect on micro, small, and medium enterprises, where everything has come to a virtual standstill. NBFCs have been significantly impacted, with loan disbursements coming to a halt and moratorium impacting collections,” said the company in an email sent to its employees and quoted by an ET report. 

According to the Ahmedabad-based company, these layoffs were also a part of its annual appraisal cycle where it usually trims the team by about 15-20% depending on their performance. However, this year additional right sizing has been undertaken by the company.

In addition, the management and leadership team has also taken pay cuts as the company is in dire need to conserve capital, added the report. 

The development comes just a few days after Lendingkart had secured Rs 319 crore as a part of its ongoing Series D round led by existing investors- Fullerton Financial Holdings and Bertelsmann India Investments, among others. Post allotment, the company’s estimated market capitalized valuation has reached to around Rs 1860 crore~ $248 million.

Lendingkart has now joined the list of startups that have laid-off employees due to disruption in their business. Food-tech majors Swiggy and Zomato collectively cut over 1600 jobs while travel and hospitality firms such as Treebo, Fab, MakeMyTrip, and TravelTriangle have fired a significant chunk of their workforce. 

Recently, ride-hailing cab aggregators Ola and Uber have also laid off 2000 employees collectively while Livspace and Sharechat have cut 15% and 25% of its total headcount respectively.