Edtech startup WhiteHat Jr, owned by Byju's, has dismissed nearly 300 employees globally as the industry continues to witness restructuring and cost cutting across major edtech sector. The workforce reduction is likely to have been carried out across departments including sales, marketing, tutors and operations among others.
The number of employees in WhiteHat Jr who have been asked to leave across Brazil and India are said to be as much as 600. Recently, startups including Unacademy, Vedantu, Lido Learning, Meesho, Citimall, among others, have also witnessed mass layoffs or resignations.
A Byju's spokesperson said, “To realign with our business priorities, we are optimizing our team to accelerate results and best position the business for long-term growth. WhiteHat Jr continues to put students first and invest in building a high-quality teacher’s network.”
According to earlier reports, over 800 employees of WhiteHat Jr had resigned in March and April after being asked to work from office. WhiteHat Jr is owned by edtech giant Byju's, which acquired the startup firm for $300 million in 2020.
Earlier this year, the startup asked remote employees to return to respective office locations within a month's time, leading to mass resignations. More than 800 full-time employees across the company, including from sales, coding, and math teams, have voluntarily resigned from the startup as they didn't want to relocate to their respective office locations.
