OYO To Lay Off 600 Employees

Hospitality aggregator platform OYO is the latest to join the club of Indian start-ups to lay off employees this year. The SoftBank-backed Gurugram-based start-up announced its decision to restructure the company, which implies retrenching 600 staff from its 3700-strong workforce. 

Multiple sources reported that OYO is cutting the number of employees from the product, engineering and OYO vacation homes team. It would likely add nearly 250 members to the business development teams and partner relationship management. 

"It is unfortunate that we are having to part ways with a lot of these talented individuals who have made valuable contributions to the company. As OYO grows and a need for some of these roles emerges in the future, we commit to reaching out to them first and offering them the opportunity," OYO's chief executive officer Ritesh Agarwal said in a statement. 

Founded by Agarwal in 2013, OYO seeks to launch its initial public offering (IPO) programme in the first quarter of the financial year (FY) 2023 with a target valuation of $7 billion to $8 billion. 

It had recorded an 8x increase in EBITDA to Rs 56 crore in the second quarter of FY 2023. Additionally, it registered Rs 1,445 crore in revenue in Q2, compared to Rs 1,459.3 crore in Q1 in FY23. The company narrowed its net losses to Rs 333 crore in the second quarter compared to Rs 414 crore in the first quarter of the same financial year.  

Layoffs in start-ups have become one of the central talking points in India. A Business Today report suggests that more than 16,000 employees lost their jobs this year. Coupled with economic hardships and low funding, start-ups are taking cost-cutting measures.