VerSe, the parent firm of news aggregator Dailyhunt and video platform Josh has laid off 150 employees, i.e five per cent of its 3,000-strong workforce in a move described as effortas to streamline costs and teams.
Umang Bedi, the company’s co-founder said the company has evaluated its strategic priorities in wake of the current economic climate. The company has taken steps to implement its regular bi-annual performance management cycle and made ‘performance and business considerations’ to streamline costs and teams, Livemint quoted him as saying.
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The firing spree comes months after VerSe raised $805 million at a valuation of around $5 billion. The funding round was led by CPP Investments which accounted for $425 million.
The fundraise move came in April and was attended by new investors Ontario Teachers‘ Pension Plan Board, Luxor Capital, Sumeru Ventures and existing investors Sofina Group, Baillie Gifford.
The company’s Chinese investor ByteDance sold its entire stake to two Canadian investors-Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Ontario Teachers‘ Pension Plan Board (OTPP).
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Bedi said that the company has announced 11 per cent salary cuts across verticals for employees with salaries above ₹10 lakh per annum to ‘offset its expenses’. The pay cuts, according to him, has been done to ensure long-term profitable growth.
VerSe Innovation had launched ‘Josh’ platform after the Narendra Modi government banned TikTok citing national security concerns. In the financial year 2022, it posted a net loss of ₹2,556 crore, up from ₹822 crore in the fiscal before. The company, which was founded in 2007, witnessed its revenue grow by ₹1,095 crore as compared to ₹727 crore in the financial year ending March 31, 2021, as per VCCEdge.
The company also runs a hyperlocal video app called PublicVibe, but its primary source of income is Dailyhunt.
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