Buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) fintech start-up Simpl has handed pink slips to over 100 employees from across various verticals, as the firm eyes profitability by 2025, according to sources.

The layoffs included some high-level employees also being impacted and were announced by Nitya Sharma, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder at Simpl in a Townhall organised at 9 am on Wednesday, sources added.

Simpl had around 650 staff, including those in core operations, interns and calling agents. The layoff has impacted people across these domains.

The employees have been promised severance which includes two months of salary, along with 15 days of salary for every year spent at Simpl as well as extended medical insurance and outplacement services, sources added.

“Some employees, who have been laid off, were logged out of their Slack accounts even before the Townhall,” a source said.

Some people were also laid off during March and April after their performance reviews. “Most of us were expecting appraisals for our performance last year. This layoff was very sudden,” another source said.

Profitability journey

The fintech firm said that the layoffs were a part of the company’s journey towards profitability.

“As an organisation committed to creating a shared value for our merchants, and millions of customers across the country, we have undertaken a series of measures to improve operational efficiencies, reduce fixed and overhead costs, along with taking the difficult decision of letting go of some of our talented employees. These efforts are enabling us to accelerate our journey towards profitability and build a fiscally prudent organisation. We have laid out a comprehensive growth plan while having a razor sharp focus on profitability in order to advance our mission of enabling e-commerce and direct-to-customer merchants to provide enhanced convenience to their customers,” said Ashish Kulshrestha, head of corporate communications at Simpl.

Last year, in April Simpl had laid off over 150 employees due to overhired assuming demand for e-commerce seen during the pandemic would continue to grow.

In 2021, Simpl announced a $40 million Series B fundraise led by Valar Ventures & IA Ventures - four years after its Series A round in 2017.

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