Livspace shakeup: 1,000 employees fired as company focuses on AI; Co-founder Saurabh Jain quits 

The decision has impacted staffers across functions like design, sales, operations, marketing and more.

KKR-backed Livspace, the home decor and interior furnishing startup, has let go of at least 1,000 employees, representing about 12 percent of its total workforce, in a move to lower costs and replace people with AI, people familiar with the developments told Moneycontrol.

Ironically, the move comes at a time when countries and several CEOs from around the globe are in India discussing the impact of AI and how it will not lead to job losses at the India AI impact Summit 2026 in Delhi.

The decision has impacted staffers across functions like design, sales, operations, marketing and more. Bengaluru-based Livspace had around 7,000-8,000 employees prior to the cost reduction exercise and has gradually reduced headcount by at least around 1,000 people.

A company spokesperson confirmed the development to Moneycontrol. “At Livspace, we’ve always been a technology-first company. As we look at the next phase of our growth, we are fundamentally reorganizing our internal operations to become an AI-native agentic organization,” the spokesperson said in response to queries.

“To be clear, this isn't a reactive cost-cut. It’s a strategic reallocation of resources,” the spokesperson added.

Livspace’s decision was taken because the company is investing heavily in AI to optimise operations.

“What this means in practice is that we’ve integrated advanced AI agents and automation across our core functions — Sales, Ops, Design, and Marketing. In many areas, tasks that were previously manual are now handled by intelligent systems, while our existing teams are seeing their productivity supercharged,” the spokesperson said.

This is at least the second round of layoffs at the company. In 2023, it had cut nearly 100 jobs in a move to improve its profit profile and had also let go of over 400 employees in 2020.

The decisions, over the years, have helped Livspace reduce losses and improved its top line. In FY25, Livspace increased sales to Rs 1,460 crore, up 23 percent from Rs 1,185 crore in FY24. Its losses shrunk from Rs 416 crore to Rs 242 crore during the same period.

Co-founder quits

While Livspace realigns its workforce, one of its co-founders Saurabh Jain, who was elevated from the role of Chief Business Officer (CBO) only in 2022, has also quit the company. He had joined Livspace in 2015. He had joined when his company DezignUp was acquired by Livspace in 2015.

In tandem with our technological evolution, we are also seeing a natural transition in our leadership. After 11 remarkable years, our co-founder, Saurabh Jain, has decided to move on to pursue his personal interests. Saurabh has been a cornerstone of Livspace since day one and was absolutely instrumental in scaling the company to its current heights,” the spokesperson added.

Livspace, which competes with Peak XV-backed HomeLane and others in the home decor market. It is the largest company in the space and has raised over $500 million since being founded in 2014 and was last valued at over $1 billion. The company was started by Ramakant Sharma, Anuj Srivastava and Shagufta Anurag.