BENGALURU: Ahead of the New Year, social media platform ShareChat laid off 200 employees. According to sources, social media platform on Wednesday asked each division to join a call and announced layoffs.
This is a strategic restructuring as part of the platform’s annual planning for the year 2024. In a statement ShareChat said, “The decision reflects the company’s commitment to streamlining its cost base and achieving profitability within the next 4-6 quarters.”
“In alignment with our strategic vision, the company undertook a comprehensive restructuring effort to streamline operations, enhance productivity, and position the company for sustainable growth. As a result, the organisation has moved to a flatter organisation structure and prioritised product initiatives that resulted in a reduction in team sizes by roughly 15%,” the statement added.
This announcement also comes at a time the social media unicorn is in the final stages of raising funds. Reports suggest that it will raise about $50 million soon. Earlier in January, the start-up fired 500 employees citing several external macro factors that impact the cost and availability of capital It had said that as capital becomes expensive, companies need to prioritise their bets and invest in the highest-impact projects only.
Soon after the layoff announcement, ShareChat co-founders Farid Ahsan and Bhanu Pratap Singh stepped down from their roles, and last month they launched their new robotics start-up General Autonomy, and even raised $3 million in seed funding.
Founded in 2015 and backed by Temasek, Tencent, Tiger Global Management and Twitter Ventures, among others, it has so far raised $1.7 billion. It was valued at $4.37 billion in May 2022. Its revenue in FY23 stood at Rs 718.8 crore, and according to Tracxn, the loss for the year stood at Rs 5,144.3 crore.
Mohalla Tech’s, the parent company of ShareChat and short video platform Moj, operating losses jumped
to Rs 2,569 crore in FY22 compared to Rs 1,460 crore in the previous fiscal.