Indiabulls-run social commerce platform Yaari lays off 150 workers

In the latest string of layoffs in the funding winter, conglomerate Indiabulls‘ social commerce platform Yaari has reportedly laid off nearly 150 employees which makes 60 per cent of its workforce.

According to a report in the leading startup news coverage portal Inc42, Yaari is likely to be merged with another Indiabulls-backed entity called ‘Dhani’, which is an ecommerce platform.

The layoffs reportedly occurred in the last week of April across supply support, customer support, business development and marketing verticals, and the company allegedly did not extend any severance package or health benefits to those impacted by the round of layoff.

The company was yet to react to the report that came out on Tuesday.

Yaari is a social commerce marketplace for customised consumer products.

Yaari Digital Integrated Services launched the social commerce marketplace in March last year, to enable small businesses and resellers to start their business online via social channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram etc.

The Yaari app was built to have a variety of products to choose from, that the individual resellers can resell among their social contacts.

The app also provides aspiring entrepreneurs, especially women, the ease to start an online business from home by taking away risk of inventory management, payments and even order fulfilment.

The latest round of layoffs came as the Indian startup ecosystem is reeling under severe tremors owing to global macro-economic factors like the war, high inflation, rising interest rates and China lockdowns.

To date, over 8,000 startup employees have lost their jobs in India — led by edtech companies — and the list is only growing. Although, the figure may be more if we take contractual workers into the account.

The situation is set to get worse with recession looming and VC funding drying up in the Indian startup ecosystem that received about $42 billion funding last year.

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