MohallaTech—parent company of social media firm Sharechat—has laid off over 500 of its employees, as per an internal company note circulated by CEO Ankush Sachdeva. The company had previously laid off over 100 employees in December 2022.
Sachdeva’s note cites “financial health and longevity of our company in the current uncertain macroeconomic environment” as the reasons behind the decision to fire employees.
The affected employees will receive a financial package that includes 15 days of monthly gross salary for each completed year of service as a full-time employee in addition to payout for the notice period.
The parent firm has also assured the laid off employees that their health insurance benefits will be active until June 30, 2023 and that they can retain the smartphone provided by the company for personal use.
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In June 2022, MohallaTech had raised $255 million from investors including Google-parent Alphabet. The company is presently valued at around $5 billion. ShareChat was founded in 2015 by Ankush Sachdeva along with Farid Ahsan and Bhanu Pratap Singh.
“In hindsight, we overestimated the market growth in the highs of 2021 and underestimated the duration and intensity of the global liquidity squeeze... There is a growing market consensus that the current global economic downturn would be a much more sustained one, and we thus have to, unfortunately, seek more cost savings by reducing our team size,” Sachdeva added in his note, as quoted by Economic Times.
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