ShareChat parent lays off 500 employees, six months after fund raise

As part of the layoff process, affected employees will receive 100 percent of their variable pay until December 2023.

ShareChat parent company Mohalla Tech Pvt has laid around 500 employees, the news came in after six months of raising $255 million in funding. 

The social media platform, backed by tech giants like Google and Temasek, announced it will let go of 20 percent of its staff as it needs to prepare the company to sustain "several external macro factors that impact the cost and availability of capital".

Mohalla Tech, ShareChat, and its short video app Moj is expected to lay off around 600 employees. ShareChat is valued at $5 billion and has more than 2,200 employees.

According to the reports, the layoffs are a result of excessive hiring after a series of funding round.

As part of the layoff process, the affected employees will receive 100 percent of their variable pay until December 2022. Additionally, the company will pay the total salary for the notice period and two weeks' pay as ex gratia for every year served with the company.

In December 2021, Sharechat shut down its fantasy sports platform Jeet11 and laid off around 115 employees. After that, the company's chief commercial officer, Ajit Varghese stepped down.