Exclusive: SaaS startup Actyv.ai lays off more than 60% employees

Enterprise SaaS startup Actyv.ai has fired more than 60% of its employees in two phases, sources aware of the development told Entrackr. This comes a few months after the Bengaluru-based startup closed a $12 million pre-Series A funding.

“Actyv.ai fired more than 60% of employees across functions including product, marketing, HR, sales, and solutioning,” said a source requesting anonymity. “In April they laid off 25-30 folks and now the company asked 65-70 employees to go during a town hall on Monday.”

The company said the layoffs were a “response to prevailing market conditions.”

A company spokesperson clarified to Entrackr that the total number of employees that were let go this time stood at 60. There were around 25-30 interns in the company who left after completing their training while 10-15 people were let go on performance basis and it was not part of layoff, the spokesperson added.

"Making tough decisions is an inevitable part of adapting to evolving market conditions and implementing strategic rightsizing initiatives. While these choices are challenging, they are essential for our organization's long-term success and sustainability. We value the dedication and commitment of each team member during this transition period, and we believe that these measures will position us for a stronger and more resilient future,” Raghu Subramanian, founder and CEO of the company, said in a statement.

Actyv.ai completed $7 million as part of its pre-series A funding in January this year. Founded by Raghunath Subramanian, the startup had initiated the round in February 2022 with a $5 million cheque from the same investor.

According to sources, the leadership team has been asked to work without any salary till December or until the next funding round. “The company has not been able to raise new money and is putting all measures to reduce burn,” said another source.

The spokesperson, however, denied this.

Soon after the town hall announcement, a bunch of Actyv.ai’s employees also posted ‘open to work’ on their LinkedIn timelines. Entrackr has independently verified this.

Actyv.ai is a B2B SaaS platform with embedded Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) and insurance products through partnerships with financial institutions. During the last funding round, the firm claimed that it has partnered with more than 20 institutions and over 25,000 distributors and one lakh retailers were onboarded on the platform.

Over the past six seven months, several early and growth stage startups reduced their workforce after raising substantial money. Recently, edtech firm Skill-Lync fired 20% of its total workforce. The list also includes well-funded startups FrontRow, Mojocare, and Pillow which resorted to mass layoffs and are now staring at shutdowns.

Update: 7 pm IST: The contents of this story has been updated with clarification from the company spokesperson and a statement from the founder.