Indian electric vehicle maker Euler Motors has laid off more than 50% of its workforce, the latest among several late-stage Indian startups that have been cutting staff to preserve funds amid a market volatility and funding slowdown, multiple sources told DealStreetAsia.
The company is expected to lay off 50 more employees in the near future, one of the sources said.
Euler Motors did not immediately respond to a request for comment by DealStreetAsia.
On April 1, some employees were asked to submit their laptops and IDs to HR, and they were laid off the same day without any notice period or severance, the sources said.
The company cited lack of funds as the reason for the layoffs, one of the sources said.
Many new joinees have also been asked to resign, even as they are under probation, according to two sources.
The company has around 500 employees on LinkedIn.
Last year, Euler Motors raised $60 million in a funding led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC. Moglix, a business-to-business e-commerce firm for industrial products; Blume Ventures; Athera Venture Partners (formerly Inventus India); QRG Holdings; and ADB Ventures also participated. In 2021, the company raised an additional $10 million led by the Delhi-based QRG Investments and Holdings.
The company said it will use the funds to scale up its manufacturing and supply-chain infrastructure, accelerate product development, and augment talent across key functions.
According to layoffs tracker website layoffs.fyi, 763 startups have laid off 154,843 employees globally in 2022.
Last week, healthtech firm Practo laid off 41 employees, while recently, SoftBank-backed Unacademy laid off 12% of its employees, according to an internal memo seen by DealStreetAsia.
Separately, Indian job search platform for blue-collar workers GoodWorker, which is backed by Singapore state investor Temasek, has laid off nearly 90% of its employees, while kiranatech company 1K Kirana has cut 40% jobs across departments.