BENGALURU: Microblogging start-up Koo, which was once considered as a direct competitor for X, is now struggling to pay salaries to its employees. It has halted salary payments from April due to a cash crunch.
Koo has informed employees that future salaries can only be paid out once the partnership is concluded as it could bring a fresh capital infusion. The company at present has less than 250 employees.
Mayank Bidawatka, co-founder, in a LinkedIn post said, "We have done everything to extend our runway so that employees and vendors could get paid. We've also resorted to salary cuts. It’s painful to cut salaries of people who've helped build the company. We had the option of either letting a good part of the workforce go or do a haircut for everyone. We did the latter. This way everyone could sustain without having to look for a job at a time when hiring across startups is at its all-time low. The delay in the partnership hurts everyone without an exception but it’s a process that’s taken its own time."
He added that they have encouraged people to consult or work full / part time with others to meet their cash needs.
"Koo remains operational. It’s very well built and a fully automated product that needs little manual intervention to function. There’s a proud team that stands behind it, irrespective of where they are today. They’ve all been proud parents to the little yellow bird at some point or another," he added.
According to Traxn, Koo's last funding round was in June 2022 and the company raised $11.6 million in Series B. Its total funding stood at $65.7 million and its investors include Accel, Tiger Global Management and Kalaari Capital, among others.