Lightspeed-backed Teachmint becomes latest edtech startup to lay off employees

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Lightspeed Venture Partners-backed edtech startup Teachmint has laid off 45 employees or about 5 percent of its workforce across departments in a restructuring exercise as it looks to build 'long-term efficiencies' amid a funding winter, people aware of the matter told Moneycontrol.

Teachmint, a classroom management platform, has offered a severance package of three months and health coverage to the laid-off employees, the people said, requesting anonymity. Teachmint would also expedite the vesting of ESOPs (employee stock ownership plans) for the affected employees and the laid-off employees can apply for different roles within the organisation, the people said.

News agency Inc42 first reported the development saying employees from sales and operations teams were affected.

"In an effort to build long-term efficiencies and address redundancies, we have restructured some teams. As a result, unfortunately, some roles have been impacted. The impacted employees have been informed in advance and we are supporting them to the maximum extent possible," a spokesperson for Teachmint told Moneycontrol without disclosing any more details.

Founded in 2020 by Mihir Gupta, Payoj Jain, Divyansh Barodia, and Anshuman Kumar, Teachmint is a mobile-first, video-first, teaching platform that helps in digitisation of classrooms. The startup has raised $118 million to date, from global venture capital firms including Rocketship.VC, Vulcan, Better Capital among others besides Lightspeed Venture Partners. It was last valued at $500 million.

Earlier this year, Teachmint was on an acquisition spree. The edtech company bought stakes in as many as four companies in two months to January 2022. In November last year, Teachmint had launched a program that let employees sell their shares as soon as they are eligible by giving them more financial leeway, Moneycontrol had reported.

Teachmint has joined a growing list of technology companies across the globe to lay off in masses amid macroeconomic headwinds. In India, technology startups have laid off close to 18,000 employees since the start of 2022. Edtech companies, in particular, have struggled the most. As many as 7,000 employees have been laid off by edtech startups this year, with some of the country's highest-funded unicorns such as Byju's and Unacademy, leading the table.