Google-backed Cuemath fires another 100 employees

Edtech company Cuemath has laid off more than 100 employees citing adverse macro-environment for startups. In May, the Google-backed company provided pink slips to around 100 employees.

“We’ve taken the difficult decision to reduce the size of our team as part of a restructuring exercise across the company. In this process, we will be bidding goodbye to 100+ talented Cuemath employees,” a Cumath spokesperson said in a statement.

“Over the past few months, we have made a lot of good progress - on making our product experience stronger, growing our revenue base, and improving key operating metrics, while still keeping costs under control. We are one of the few edtech players that have very healthy renewal rates, which is a good indicator of our product’s effectiveness,” the spokesperson added.

Following the last round of layoffs, Cuemath made key management changes of late. The firm roped in its former CEO Manan Khurma to take over the role of chief executive while the then CEO Vivek Sundar retained his position of co-founder in the company.

The edtech firm had a plan to raise $100 million but it settled with $57 million in June 2022 with a valuation of $400 million. The firm offers one-on-one Math classes for the K-12 segment and helps students prepare for school and competitive tests.

According to the spokesperson, the firm also realises that the adverse macro-environment for startups - and especially in the edtech space - is here to stay for an uncertain amount of time. This has led the company to recalibrate the business priorities and pursue a more sustainable growth path.

For the fiscal year ending March 2022, Cumath’s revenue grew 63.1% to Rs 148.05 crore from Rs 90.77 crore in FY21. Its losses, however, spiked 66% to Rs 216.6 crore during the period. The firm is yet to file its audited financial statements for FY23.

The so-called funding winter has compelled several startups to recalibrate their strategies for sustainability, including reducing workforce as a cost-cutting measure. In some cases, startups have held multiple rounds of layoffs. For instance, Google-backed company Dunzo and edtech company Byju’s have gone through three rounds of layoffs in the ongoing calendar year. Edtech Skill Lync and short video platform Chingari also fired employees in multiple phases this year.