BENGALURU: Movie booking platform Book My Show has laid off 200 employees, founder and CEO, Ashish Hemrajani tweeted on Thursday. This is the second round of retrenchments by the Mumbai-based startup after it let go of 270 employees last year, when the first wave of the pandemic dented economy.
The firm has now laid-off 31 per cent of its 1500 employee base across the country.
"COVID-19 has taught me many lessons & I learnt another one today. As we let go of 200 of the most incredibility talented & performance driven individuals, each & everyone has messaged, thanking me for the opportunity, the love for @bookmyshow and asking me if they could help 'me' in any way possible. Now that’s character. And if there is a 'Unicorn' of wealth then this is it - the character of people you choose to surround yourself with. All of us together for the past 15 months through our charity @bookasmileindia impacted about 1,000,000 COVID affected people," Hemrajani said in a tweet.
With stringent lockdowns in place and second wave of COVID hitting the country harder, the contact-intensive service sectors including entertainment, hospitality and tourism have been battered and have seen massive retrenchments since last year. As per a survey by Centre for Monitoring Economy, over 15 million jobs were lost in the month of May when the COVID wave peaked, the worst in a year.
"These 200 folks were handpicked & curated over years and had surrounded themselves with the highest values of culture, performance and empathy. As the day passed, I had two thoughts, one of managing optics or two - just doing the right thing. And for me, finding each of them a new home, where a new journey can begin, was the easy choice. So if you have leads, please DM me & we will do the needful. They will contribute incredibly to the growth of your wonderful firms. I am sure we will all come out stronger," Hemrajani added.
The Capital18 and TPG Growth-backed startup has raised USD 224.5 million over six funding rounds with the most recent investments received in January 2019.