In a memo to employees, cofounder and CEO Gaurav Munjal told employees that the Bengaluru-based unicorn’s leadership including founders will take these cuts.
“The salary cut will depend on the current salary of the leader, their scope and performance… These cuts are permanent and the salaries will only be revised in April 2024,” he added.
The company did not respond immediately to ET’s request seeking comment on the development.
On Thursday, Munjal had told employees that Unacademy had taken “every step in the right direction” to make its core business profitable, but the efforts had not been enough.
He had just informed the team about a 12% layoff exercise.
Discover the stories of your interest
“I have conducted detailed reviews with every leader in the organisation to determine the size of the team in line with a sustainable cost structure, the skills necessary for today’s business needs and the direction each team has to take to work towards our key business goals and achieve profitability,” Munjal wrote.The memo was sent just a day after the company said it had hived off CodeChef, an acquisition it made in 2020.
SoftBank- and General Atlantic-backed Unacademy is under pressure to cut down on its monthly cash burn.
Last month, the company had cancelled appraisals for the financial year ended March 2023 to focus on turning profitable, amid an overall tightening in funding and a slump in demand for online education.
The edtech company has been slashing its workforce over multiple rounds of job cuts for a year now in its attempt to turn profitable.
It had fired around 1,000 contractual and full-time employees in April 2022.
Three months later, Munjal told staff that Unacademy would not lay off more employees and would work to reduce other expenses.
However, in early November, the company culled as many as 350 roles, impacting about 10% of employees across the group.
In January, its Relevel business unit laid off 40 employees, or 20% of its workforce.
In November, Munjal had said in a Twitter post that the company had cut its cash burn rate from $20 million a month to $7 million a month, with a further reduction on the cards.