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Koo, a rival of Twitter Inc. in India, has laid off nearly a third of its employees in recent months as the company grapples with losses and an inability to raise funds. The three-year-old microblogging app has laid off 30% of its roughly 260 employees because "the global sentiment is currently more about efficiency than growth and companies need to strive to demonstrate the economics of unity," a spokesperson for the company said. company, backed by Tiger Global, in response to questions from Bloomberg News. Initially, the Bangalore-based company benefited from Twitter's dispute with Indian authorities over content on its platform, as many citizens, including government officials, cricket stars and Bollywood celebrities, flocked to Koo as a local alternative. Yet the current scramble to access cash comes amid a global rout for tech companies and depressed investment activity that has slashed billions from the valuations of once-high-flying start-ups.
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Koo, with more than 60 million downloads, is "well capitalized" and the company is working to become profitable with monetization experiments, co-founder Mayank Bidawatka said in an interview. It also has one of the highest revenue per user among other social networking companies today, he added.
The company, which also counts Accel and Kalaari Capital among its investors, raised funds at a valuation of $273 million last year, according to research firm Tracxn.
The startup supported laid off employees with severance pay, expanded health benefits and helped find new jobs, the spokesperson said.
