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Last week Oyo Rooms confirmed the worst fears of economic slowdown and consolidation finally hitting the Indian startup industry, after the Gurgaon based company announced that it is firing nearly 20% of its Indian workforce in coming weeks. Company’s founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal did not specified about any exact deadline though it was assumed that the retrenchment would begin at the earliest.
But latest speculative news doing around the Industry strongly suggest that Oyo may have already started laying off employees and number of laid off employees reportedly account to over 3,000. This is the number that has been touted by sources privy to the matter. If this information is indeed correct then Oyo’s restructuring exercise may lead to much larger layoffs than previously assumed.
Sources claim that the number of laid of employees is certainly higher than what was touted last week, estimated to be around 2,400. Sources further added that 1,000 people have been laid off in North India alone. Other unconfirmed reports also claim that large number of layoffs have been reported across Oyo’s Southern Indian offices.
Amid all these confusion and myriad of unconfirmed reports, Oyo has so far maintained a complete silence over the matter. However, it is no secret that one of India’s most sought after unicorn startups is facing immense heat from SoftBank – the largest investor in the company.
SoftBank’s reputation last year suffered a massive blow following WeWork’s IPO fiasco and hence now it doesn’t want any further slip up by allowing its other high profile portfolio to reside in the bubble world for a long time.
Oyo’s massive restructuring exercise is also seen as a sign that the company is preparing for an IPO and the success of its public issue will largely hinge on the health of its balance sheet.
