Bangalore-based B2B e-commerce unicorn Udaan has laid off over 100 employees within a week of raising $340 million in a series E funding, in line with a trend of layoffs seen among Indian start-ups across sectors in 2023.

The company, which has reportedly indicated its intent to be public-market ready in the next 12-18 months, on Monday said it is looking to improve efficiency and grow business sustainability.

“We have already made significant progress in our journey towards building a profitable business and continue to make relevant interventions to our already proven business model, while remaining customer centric and agile. However, these interventions have also resulted in some redundancies in the system.” an Udaan spokesperson said.

“As a responsible organisation, we are working towards providing all requisite support to the impacted employees which include medical insurance, compensation package according to company policy and placement assistance.”

“We remain committed to our goal of driving Kirana commerce and empowering small and medium businesses by leveraging the power of e-commerce,” the spokesperson added.

Udaan is not an exception as Indian tech start-ups have laid off over 15,000 employees in 2023, according to data compiled by Layoffs.fyi. Byju’s, 1K Kirana, Sharechat, Skill Lync, Swiggy, MPL are among the companies where layoffs have been significant during the year.

The layoffs come amid funds drying up and companies having to manage operating expenses with tepid investor interest. According to Grant Thornton data, the number of deals in the private equity space has declined from 175 in January 2022 to 81 in November 2023 and deal values have also come down.

“Among the various sectors affected, the technology sector experienced the most severe impact, closely followed by e-commerce, finance and education,” said Sachin Alug, CEO, NLB Services.