Healthcare platform MediBuddy sacks 8% staff citing 'market conditions'

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Online healthcare services platform MediBuddy has become the latest firm to lay off employees. The company has laid off about 8 percent of its staff across departments, in what has been described as a 'one-time restructuring exercise' by MediBuddy.

The rationale behind the layoffs was to eliminate redundancies, the company said in a statement on January 20. The layoffs come at a time private market funding to India's startup ecosystem has slowed down significantly over the last eight months amid macroeconomic headwinds.

News website Inc42 reported that MediBuddy has fired 200 employees across departments since the start of the week. Tech, product, sales, and operations teams have been impacted by the layoffs the most.

"Given the market conditions, many organizations continue to adjust and it is rather unfortunate that we too had to take this step to ensure that we continue to focus on our vision to make high-quality healthcare accessible to a billion people," MediBuddy said in a statement.

"In this entire process of realignment, we had to part with 8 percent of the workforce across all departments as a one-time restructuring exercise and eliminated any redundancy in roles and responsibilities," the company added.

Also read: Tech layoffs in January exceed December total in just 5 days

MediBuddy also said that it will provide out-placement assistance to laid-off employees and a 'care package' designed for the health and wellness of employees while extending health insurance.

Founded in 2015 by IIT Madras alumni Satish Kannan and  Enbasekar Dinadayalane, MediBuddy runs a technology platform that lets users have all-day access to specialist doctors via video calls and also has services like medicine delivery, at-home lab tests, mental health support, and other integrated healthcare services.

The company has raised as much as $191 million in equity and venture debt funding to date, according to data available on private marker data provider platform Tracxn. The company last raised $125 million in February 2022 as a part of its Series C funding round co-led by private equity firms Quadria Capital and Lightrock India. MediBuddy, however, did not disclose its valuation then.

Besides Lightrock India and Quadria Capital, MediBuddy also counts  India Life Sciences Fund III, Bessemer Venture Partners, Rebright Partners, JAFCO Asia, TEAMFund LP, FinSight Ventures, InnoVen Capital, Stride Ventures, and Alteria Capital as its backers.

MediBuddy has joined a growing list of heavily funded startups to lay off in masses anticipating the much-talked-about funding winter to worsen in 2023. Earlier on January 18, food tech platform Swiggy, currently valued at over $10 billion, laid off 380 employees.

Also read: Google parent Alphabet to lay off 12,000 employees or 6% workforce worldwide