Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) startup Simpl is making headlines once again and this time for its layoffs. It handed out pink slips to around 30 employees lately and this marks the second major round of layoffs within a month. It terminated 160 employees in early May. The layoff drive is mainly to become profitable by mid-2025.
The layoffs are across departments in the company. It is impacting both junior staff and senior executives. The notable exits are Ashwini Ravindranath, Vice President of Partner Success, Vatsal Jain, Vice President of Enterprise Business, and Ramkumar Narayanan, Vice President of Product and Operations.
Those who are affected by the layoffs have been promised a severance package and this includes two months of fixed salary as well as an additional 15 days’ salary for every year of service. However, the mood among the remaining staff is witnessed to be tensed. One former employee mentioned Simpl had massively overhired earlier.
The recent layoffs are part of its broader strategy to streamline operations and therefore focus on real profitability. Ashish Kulshrestha, Head of Communications at Simpl, stated that the recent measures are part of an effort to make the company more agile. The company has experienced rapid growth in recent years. It is now taking steps to ensure that the growth should be sustainable.
However, the road to profitability has been rocky. It reported a 147 percent increase in its net loss in the fiscal year 2022-23. It totaled to Rs 356.6 crore. It financial performance for FY24 has not yet been disclosed.
Simpl was founded in 2015 and since then has raised over $80 million in funding. It now boasts a network of 26,000 online merchants along with about 42 million registered users.
