Swiggy, Flipkart to trim workforce ahead of IPOs

Benguluru: IPO-bound startups Swiggy and Flipkart are expected to lay off employees over the next few months, a move likely to impact around 1,400 executives across both the companies, two people aware of the matter told Mint, asking to remain anonymous.

Walmart-owned ecommerce platform Flipkart is letting go of around 1,000 employees in an annual restructuring exercise, based on performance, the first person aware of the development said.

“Around 5-7% of the employees may be impacted in these performance-based exits. These are not related to cost cutting,” the person said. Flipkart has around 22,000 employees in all.

In its quarterly townhall meeting on Thursday, chief executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy told employees the company had reduced cash burn and had reported growth in verticals such as grocery, but it is not expecting to launch its initial public offering this year, the person cited above said.

Krishnamurthy told employees that Flipkart, which demerged from PhonePe last year, has also received approval for its own UPI (unified payments interface) offering. This would help its users make payments without switching to other applications for UPI transactions.

Unicorn foodtech platform Swiggy is laying off 350-400 employees ahead of its initial public offering, a person familiar with the company’s plans said. “It is in line with the effort to bring operational efficiencies and not cost cutting,” the person said. Swiggy has around 6,000 employees.

The move comes for Swiggy as the Bengaluru-based startup prepares to file for an IPO later this year.

In January last year, the company had let go of 380 employees and shut its meat marketplace in a bid to lower costs. Both Flipkart and Swiggy have seen senior exits over the last year.

Flipkart’s former head of new business Adarsh Menon joined Zoomcar earlier this month. The company’s chief people officer Krishna Raghavan left last October, while Flipkart’s chief technology officer Utkarsh B. left last April.

Senior exits from Swiggy include Ashish Lingamneni, vice president (VP), head, brand and product marketing, Nishad Kenkre, VP, head, revenue and growth, Instamart, and Anuj Rathi, the senior vice president (SVP) of revenue and growth, among others.

Earlier this month, Invesco, a US-based asset management company, raised the valuation of food delivery aggregator Swiggy to $8.3 billion, for the second consecutive time.

Both Flipkart and Swiggy did not immediately respond to Mint’s queries.

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