CRED-owned Happay fires over 30% staff

Expense management firm Happay has fired more than 30% of its employees as a part of restructuring exercise, two sources told Entrackr.

The company was acquired by CRED in December 2021 in a mix of cash and equity deal worth around $180 million. Entrackr had exclusively reported the development. Happay has raised $22-25 million in total and was valued at about $60 million during its extended Series B round in 2019.

CRED didn’t offer any comment on Entrackr’s queries. Inc42 reported the development first.

Happay provides expense management for corporates to manage travel and tax benefits for their employees. It offers specialised solutions for large businesses with multiple branches and surface logistics companies.

The Bengaluru-based company claims that it caters to 6,000 clients across all verticals. In September 2022, Happay entered the travel card market with launch of World Travel Card. The product allows employers to configure physical cards for use on online, POS, and ATM channels. 

Before the acquisition, Happay reported Rs 48.89 crore in revenue in FY21 as compared to Rs 37.55 crore in FY20. The firm controlled its losses from Rs 49.2 crore in FY20 to Rs 21.70 crore. It’s yet to file FY22 financial numbers.

Besides Happay, CRED also acquired HipBar, CreditVidya and took a minority stake in LiquiLoans in FY22 which led to a rise in expenses for the Kunal Shah-led company for the fiscal year ended on March 31, 2023. CRED, on the other side, saw 4.4X surge in its revenue to Rs 393.6 crore during FY22 while its losses also hiked over two folds to Rs 1,279.6 crore during the FY21-22 period.

Layoffs have become normal across the startup ecosystem as growth and late stage companies are finding it tough to raise new money. Investors have cautioned their portfolio about long funding winter and asked them to cut costs and extend the runway. As per data compiled by Fintrackr, more than 50 startups have fired over 8,000 employees in the ongoing calendar year. In 2022, the layoff numbers were more than 20,000.