Suniel Shetty on Byju's firing 2,500 employees: 'Like to think it wasn't an easy decision'

Suniel Shetty said that India's population and its aspirations still present good businesses a huge opportunity to continue their growth, even if it's at a slower rate than earlier. (Image credit: Suniel Shetty/LinkedIn)

Bollywood actor and entrepreneur Suniel Shetty on Monday commented on Byju's laying off 2,500 employees across departments to cut costs amid mounting losses. Taking to LinkedIn, the actor wrote that he would like to think that it was not an easy decision for the company to make. He also hoped that the staff laid off would be able to get back on their feet at the earliest.

"A recent article about a company laying off 2500 of its employees, was a tough one to swallow. Times 4, that’s 10000 lives affected. I’d like to think that this wasn't an easy decision to make. Praying that the impacted ones are able to get back on their feet at the earliest," Suniel Shetty wrote without naming Byju's.

"While valuations and fundraising activity saw a sharp rise over the last few years, it is now clear that of late the global sentiment has turned somewhat conservative."

The actor and entrepreneur added that he continues to believe in the "India story". "Among other factors, our population and its aspirations still present good businesses a huge opportunity to continue their growth, even if it's at a slower rate than earlier," he wrote on LinkedIn.

Read more: Byju's raises $250 mn from QIA, existing investors; valuation remains at $22 bn

Suniel Shetty also said that this is a good time for early-stage, small and mid-size businesses to establish a few operating principles -- such as switching to a survival mindset, not being in a rush to scale, and prioritising customers -- until the sentiment starts to improve.

"Think long term. Think sprint vs marathon. Think Rahul Dravid. Stable and slow is just as great," the actor added.

Byju's the world's most valued edtech startup, had announced last week that it would be laying off about 2,500 employees.

"To avoid redundancies and duplication of roles, and by leveraging technology better, around five percent of Byju’s 50,000-strong workforce is expected to be rationalised across product, content, media, and technology teams in a phased manner," the company had stated.

The last six months have been hard for the company as factors such as the year-long delay in filing of FY21 annual report, a large number of layoffs, and fundraising issues spooked its stakeholders.

“It can’t be tougher than this. And if this can’t break us, I can tell you nothing else will,” Byju Raveendran, founder of the $23-billion company, told Moneycontrol earlier.

Read more: Layoffs will be the absolute last thing at Zoho, it destroys employee loyalty: CEO Sridhar Vembu