Bizongo lays off about 50 staffers after closing $50 million round

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Bizongo, while announcing a funding of $50 million in an all-staff call, fired about 50 employees, amounting to about 15% of the total workforce, sources in the know told ET.
The Mumbai-based startup’s cofounder and chief executive Sachin Agrawal informed employees of the decision in a town hall at 10 am on Wednesday when ET reported on the funding round from existing investors led by Schroder Adveq, a Zurich-based private equity firm.

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In a statement to ET on the layoffs, Bizongo confirmed that it had parted ways with a «few of the employees, and it was a very difficult decision. We had to do so in order to drive sharper focus towards key business priorities as we continue to build a high-performance organisation.»

The money was raised at $20 million short of a unicorn-level valuation — $980 million — 63% higher compared with the previous round of funding in August 2022. Agrawal told employees that it was difficult to raise the funding round, not because of a ‘funding winter’ but because of the company's recent performance, ET has learnt.

“He told us that the company needs to restructure itself to improve its performance and that is why some of us, unfortunately who no longer fit, have to part ways. The company has assured of one more month of salaries to those impacted,” one of the employees told ET.

Another employee said the company has been trying to stitch