Exclusive: Tiger Global-backed Plum Insurance lays off a portion of its workforce

Enterprise-focused group insurance platform Plum Insurance is in the process of letting go of a part of its workforce, according to two sources aware of the matter. They said mails were sent to employees on Tuesday informing them about this development. 

Plum is estimated to have around 300 employees.

The company’s CEO and co-founder Abhishek Poddar confirmed the development to Entrackr. “We have 36 team members departing Plum,” said Poddar to Entrackr via WhatsApp. “This is <10% of our organization.”

This development comes just after Plum founder recently said that the firm plans to scale its employees base to 1,000 by FY23 or March 2023. With this move, Plum joins a long list of startups that have been letting go of their employees in the last few months.

In June last year, Plum scooped up $15.6 million in its Series A round led by Tiger Global. Tanglin Ventures and Surge Venture also participated in it. Entrackr was the first to report about the funding round. Plum was a part of the fourth cohort of Sequoia’s accelerator program Surge.

Led by Poddar and Saurabh Arora, three-year-old Plum provides group insurance facilities to startups and SMEs. The Bengaluru-based company also provides health benefits including doctor consultations, health check-ups, fitness and yoga, mental wellness, nutrition, and dental care. 

“The company will finalise the list of impacted employees on Wednesday. The company has been trying several cost cutting measures to put a tap on its expenses,” said another source, requesting anonymity.

Meanwhile, Poddar clarified that the company will ensure all kinds of provisions for the employees who are being let go. He said the impacted employees will receive severance pay, healthcare benefits, well-being counseling, ESOP vesting and dedicated placement and career support.

“Care for employees and their families is the ethos on which we have built Plum. However, the world — economic and otherwise — has changed drastically over the past six months. While our business, which lies at the intersection of two secular growth industries — insurance, and healthcare — is well-positioned to weather such an uncertain environment, we do need to match the pace and quantum of our investments with the market’s realities,” Poddar added.

Earlier this year, Plum said that it is hiring for various posts. Lack of funds and uncertainties on the next round could be the reason behind the mass firing in the company, said sources.

Plum claims to work with close to 2,000 organisations including early to growth-stage startups such as Fampay, Groww, UpStox, ClassPlus, Smallcase, Twilio, StayAbode, Unacademy, Oyo, Instawork, Posist, TapChief and Fyle.

Plum has become one of the few companies in the insurance space to face layoffs amidst a funding winter. Nova Benefits, one of Plum’s competitors, sacked around 70 employees in June this year. Entrackr exclusively reported the development.

Besides Nova, it also competes with Secure Now, Onsurity, and PazCare.

Update: We have changed the headline to reflect that Plum Insurance has laid off a portion (10%) of its workforce.