Two days after unicorn Vedantu fired 100 people from its sales and training teams comes the dismaying news that yet another edtech has handed out pink slips to staffers. LEAD (earlier called Lead School) has decided to let go of over 80 employees as part of its cost-cutting exercise.
While confirming this news to Entrackr, a company spokesperson said, "We concluded our performance appraisal process last month, and each year, we experience some churn during this time. The resulting reduction in our workforce is less than 100 persons."
Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah founded Lead School in 2012 and later renamed it LEAD. It claims to offer integrated curriculum and technology solutions to private schools, enabling them to impart advanced education through an online or hybrid model.
The Mumbai-based edtech joined the unicorn club earlier this year after raising $100 million in a funding round led by WestBridge Capital with participation from GSV Ventures. It had raised another $30 million from a Series D round in April 2021, bringing its valuation to $1.1 billion in January 2022.
The company reportedly collaborates with over 5,000 schools across 500 Indian cities with an annual contract value of $80 million for FY 2022. It aimed to reach 2 million students by FY 2023.
However, the reopening of physical schools has dealt many edtech start-ups a hard blow . LEAD was not spared either. According to reports, in FY 2021, its operating revenues stood at Rs 57.1 crore in FY21, while its annual losses jumped by a whopping 153 per cent to touch Rs 126 crore.
The past few months have seen several edtech companies trim their workforce . Vedantu fired 624 full-time and contractual staffers in two tranches in May 2022, while 1200 Lido Learning employees were asked to quit in February 2022.
Softbank-backed Unacademy laid off 750 employees and some contractual teachers, while Byju's has laid off over 500 people at Whitehat Jr and Toppr. Frontrow and Udayy sacked 300 and 110 people, respectively. Eruditus, too, let go of over 80 people in June 2022.