Udaan laid off over 100 employees after restructuring in September

B2B e-commerce platform Udaan laid off more than 100 employees in September following a restructuring exercise.

The Bengaluru-based firm restructured its business units to merge the essentials business (FMCG, staples, and pharma) and the discretionary business (general merchandise, lifestyle, and electronics). 

Vivek Gupta, who was in charge of the essentials business, moved away from his operational role. The company appointed Uday Bhaskar to lead the consolidated unit. 

Confirming the layoffs during the restructuring, an Udaan spokesperson said, “We have already made significant progress in our journey towards building a profitable business and continue to make relevant interventions to our already proven business model, while remaining customer centric and agile. However, these interventions have also resulted in some redundancies in the system.”

“We remain committed to our goal of driving Kirana commerce and empowering small & medium businesses of Bharat by leveraging the power of e-commerce,” the spokesperson added.

The development was first reported by ET Retail.

This was the first layoffs at the company in 2023. Udaan fired over 500 staff across two phases in 2022.

Udaan is targeting growth and profitability and be public-market ready in the next 12-18 months. Last week, the firm also managed to raise $340 million from new and existing backers as a part of equity and convertible debt.

Udaan’s gross revenue (GMV) dipped by 43.1% to Rs 5,629 crore in FY23 from Rs 9,900 crore in FY22. Its losses, however, also contracted 33.7% to Rs 2,076 crore in FY23 from Rs 3,132 crore in FY22.