Following The Footsteps Of Unacademy, Meesho Fires 150 Employees From The Grocery Arm

Following a decision to integrate the grocery division into its main app, e-commerce firm Meesho has decided to lay off 150 employees in an attempt to reduce cash burn. After Lido, Trell, OkCredit, and Unacademy, Meesho becomes the fourth Indian startup to carry out a layoff in 2022.  

According to a Meesho spokesperson, the company is offering severance packages and outplacement assistance to help the laid-off employees secure new opportunities outside Meesho.   

Also read; Why do 90% of the startups fail? Address the general know-how and learn how to succeed  

Meesho's grocery business was previously known as Farmiso, but following the rebranding, it would be called Meesho Superstore. Reports suggest that the layoff is happening against the backdrop of the rebranding and restructuring within the company.  

As #Meesho, #Unacademy, and others, lay off employees in large numbers.

Take a look at layoffs at various startups in the year 2022👇🏻#Startups #Startup #Layoff #Jobs #Employment pic.twitter.com/IpOx8qcmMF

— Moneycontrol (@moneycontrolcom) April 12, 2022

The roles that have been affected are mostly at the city level. Designers and executives working on the UI of erstwhile Farmiso have also been affected by the restructuring effort.   

Differing Opinions On Context

In a blog published by the company, it was announced that facebook-backed Meesho is scaling up the grocery business from six to twelve cities. The company also mentioned that the new Superstore division has the highest number of employees at 500 and Meesho is focused on continuing to grow and hire talents.   

Earlier in September 2021, it was reported that Meesho was burning cash at the rate of USD 20 to 25 million per month. Some sources inside the company also suggested that Meesho was burning close to USD 50 million in some months.   

While the suggestion is that the layoff is happening in order to reduce the cash burn, sources inside Meesho suggest that the company is moving to a different model with its grocery business in which the roles of city-level executives will become redundant.   

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As per recent reports, Meesho has been in the market to raise fresh funding in 2022 after having raised USD 570 million in September 2021.

A source speaking to Entrackr commented on the condition of anonymity, “Meesho is in the market for over a month to raise up to $1 billion but the company is finding it hard to convince existing and new investors.”  

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