Elon Musk is currently the toast of the world — SpaceX has just become the first private company to send a man into space, and the US has resumed manned space flights from its soil after nearly a decade. But even as Elon Musk is being feted as the hero history will undoubtedly record him as, things weren’t always quite as simple. When Musk had announced that he was launching SpaceX, his plans had been…

By now the huge economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic is apparent. With extended lockdowns prevalent around the world and economies being almost shut for 3 months since March now, companies have faced a loss of revenue, burned their cash on fixed costs and employees, and have had to resort to all means of cost-cutting. One of the biggest pitfalls of these cost-cutting measures has been instituting large-scale layoffs. While larger companies in India like Reliance, Infosys, TCS, ITC etc. have instituted paycuts across the aboard and levied a hiring freeze, India’s vaunted startups have had to take rather extreme measures to conserve capital and stretch their VC dollars. While a few have tried reimagining their core business and pivoted to offer newer product market fits for a Covid19 ravaged world, they have also had to let go large chunks of their workforce to cut costs. News of layoffs across startups has been coming in thick and fast. Here’s a list of all the startups that have had publicly announced layoffs so far. This list will be updated in real time as and when we get hold of them.

The number of startups that have had to lay off employees as a result of the coronavirus crisis continues to increase. BookMyShow has announced that it has laid off or furlouged 270 of its employees. The employees represent nearly 20 percent of its staff. The announcement was made by CEO Ashish Hemrajani in an email to employees, which was also posted on its website. The impacted employees are across functions and teams.  “Today, we are…

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, it’s not only startups and companies that are having to let go of employees — VCs are struggling too. Softbank Vision Fund, which is the largest-ever VC fund in startup history, is firing 10% of its workforce, Bloomberg reports. Softbank’s Vision fund has 500 employees, so the job cuts could affect 50 people. The Vision Fund’s headquarters are in London, with additional operations in Tokyo and California. The cuts will be across…

The layoffs from the Covid crisis are now coming in thick and fast. Uber has fired 600 employees in India. These employees represented 25% of its overall workforce in the country. The impacted positions are around the company’s driver and rider support operations, and other functions. “The impact of Covid-19 and the unpredictable nature of the recovery has left Uber India with no choice but to reduce the size of its workforce,”  said Pradeep Parameswaran, President…

Some Indian startups have been affected more than the others by the Covid19 crisis, and some have responded better than the others. These companies have bent their business models, unlearnt everything, looked beyond their core product, and come up with new ways to find new income streams and ways of staying stay relevant and staying afloat. While most Indian startups are needing to resort to extreme cost cutting measures by instituting huge paycuts and layoffs, they’re also coming up with ways to find new income streams.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought with it death, destruction, and the loss of jobs. But it’s also brought it with something that’ll help India’s beleaguered citizens cope. In what is almost certainly a first in India, Swiggy is now letting customers order and receive home delivery of alcohol. “The service went live in Ranchi today after obtaining necessary approvals from the Jharkhand government, with other major cities in the state launching within a week,” Swiggy…

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Indian startups is slowly becoming apparent. Ola has said it has fired 1,400 employees in the wake of the coroanavirus pandemic. These employees are from verticals including rides, food business and financial services. “I write to all of you with the toughest decision I have ever taken – the need to downsize our organisation and let go of 1,400 of our valued employees,” Ola CEO Bhavish Agarwal wrote in…

One of the biggest fallouts of the coronavirus pandemic has been the widespread adoption of working from home — Facebook and Google have said that their employees can work from home till 2021, while Twitter has said that its employees can work from home permanently if they so choose. But even as debates rage around the feasibility of working from home long term, co-working spaces seem to already be suffering. Softbank is now valuing WeWork at…