Koo cuts 30% of workforce; says ‘focussed on efficiency than growth’

Homegrown Twitter Inc rival Koo has responded to reports claiming that it has laid off 30% of its employees amid a funding crunch, saying it is well capitalised with its recent fund raise of $10 million in January 2023.

Earlier today, a report by a global news agency said the Bangalore-based microblogging platform has cut its overall workforce by 30% of its total 260 employees.

The Tiger Global-backed startup, boasting over 60 million downloads, has said the "global sentiment right now is more focused on efficiency than growth and businesses need to work towards proving unit economics".

The layoffs reports at Koo come in the backdrop of massive churning across the tech sector globally, with big as well as smaller companies resorting to shedding their workforces. The startup industry, especially, is facing the heat amid dwindling funding in the past year.

Defending its decision on layoffs, the company said like most startups Koo also built in a workforce to account for spikes. "Given the current market environment and external realities of a global slowdown, we get affected too."

It said some of the most profitable companies in the world have shed tens of 1,000s of jobs. "We are a young startup with a long way ahead of us," it said.

"It's important for businesses of all sizes to adopt efficient and conservative approaches to see this period through. In line with this, we have acted on some role redundancies by letting go of 30% of our workforce over the course of the year and have supported them through compensation packages, extended health benefits and outplacement services," the company said.

Koo claims to be the second largest microblog available to the world, with 20+ global languages and started its monetisation in September 2022. "With over 100+ brands advertising on the platform, we will continue experimenting with monetisation to build a sustainable business."

The development regarding layoffs at Koo comes a day after reports that global tech giants Amazon and Meta have again resorted to layoffs. Amazon has confirmed the news across its advertising division with a global news agency. Just last month, the US-based eComm giant announced to trim 9,000 more positions. In January, it laid off 18,000 employees.

Meta, reports say, after trimming 13% or 11,000 jobs, is again planning job cuts in Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Reality Labs. Just last month, Zuckerberg said over the next couple of months, the company leaders will announce restructuring plans focused on flattening the organisation, cancelling lower-priority projects, and reducing hiring rates.

Since the second half of CY2022, tech organisations globally have announced laying off thousands of employees in an effort to reduce costs and streamline operations. Last month, US-based IT major Accenture announced to lay off 19,000 employees, or 2.5% of its global workforce. Google sacked around 12,000 roles in one of the highest headcount reductions in the past year. Twitter sacked 50% of its workforce since Elon Musk took over last year.