Unacademy said Tuesday that Relevel, its upskilling product, is shifting focus to testing the product and its recently launched LinkedIn rival NextLevel, the latest in a series of changes from the Indian edtech unicorn as it races to find its next breakthrough.
As part of the move, about 40 people at Relevel will be laid off “due to lack of role availability,” Unacademy co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal wrote to employees on Tuesday. About 80% of Relevel’s team will be absorbed by other companies within the Unacademy Group, he said in the note, reviewed by businesskinda.com.
Those enrolled in Relevel’s cohorts will not be affected and the departing team members will be offered severance pay for their notice and two additional months, said the Indian edtech, which is backed by SoftBank, Tiger Global and Sequoia India.
“We are very grateful for the hard work and contributions of the Relevel team. Their hard work and busyness enabled us to scale our revenues quickly, but unit economics proved challenging,” Munjal wrote.
“Our culture is to pursue new and creative ideas, but we are also disciplined to hold ourselves to a high bar to continue the projects we start. Again, this decision does not deprive them of their positive contributions, especially to improving the learning path and job prospects of our clients.”
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Unacademy launched Relevel in 2021, hoping to capitalize on creators’ rising popularity by providing them with a platform to launch cohort-based live courses. The product, in which the edtech giant invested more than $20 million, surpassed $10 million in annualized recurring revenue last year.
The startup launched NextLevel, its take on LinkedIn, last month.
Unacademy has eliminated about 1,400 full-time and contract positions since last year as the startup has sought to cut costs and gain more discipline.
The Bengaluru-headquartered startup “always raised more money than needed” to “constantly experiment and grow our platform without worrying about when the money runs out,” Munjal told associates last year. “But now we have to change our ways. […] Winter is here.”
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