附近上门

A little over a month after announcing new funding, Indian food delivery startup is laying off 1,100 employees.

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Swiggy鈥檚 Sriharsha Majety wrote in a message to employees on the company鈥檚 blog Monday, that the core food delivery business had been 鈥渟everely impacted鈥� by the COVID-19 pandemic. Majety added that Swiggy would be scaling down or shutting down adjacent businesses that would likely be highly volatile or not relevant in the next 18 months, most notably its cloud kitchen operation.

鈥淲hile Covid might have long-term tailwinds for the delivery business and digital commerce when things settle eventually, nobody knows how long the uncertainty will last,鈥� Majety wrote. 鈥淲e therefore need to be prepared to see through this winter, to emerge stronger on the other side. While all our hard work and some good luck has meant that we have had a stable setup all these years, we have to make some very hard decisions today.鈥�

The news of layoffs comes a little more than a month after Swiggy raised $43 million in a new round of funding, bringing its valuation to $3.6 billion, according to . The company also raised $113 million in February.

But the company, like other food delivery companies in India, has been hit hard by COVID-19. Both Ziggy and competitor Zomato saw food delivery orders drop 70 percent in late March and early April, according to the .

Swiggy鈥檚 best known for its food delivery service, but it also delivers groceries and operates a drop-off and pick-up service for things like laundry and documents. Despite layoffs, the company will be investing in areas that are ripe for growth, according to the blog post.

鈥淲hile this crisis has impacted our core business negatively, there is no doubt that we are now at an inflection point for the penetration of digital commerce and home delivery in India,鈥� Majety wrote. 鈥淭his offers us opportunities to continue investing our efforts in grocery and other service offerings that we think will continue to do well. We are going to invest in these high-confidence efforts to focus not on surviving alone, but on growing along the way by adapting very quickly.鈥�

Competitor Zomato is also going through layoffs and cutting about 13 percent of its workforce, or 520 employees, the reported over the weekend.

鈥淥ur business has been severely affected by the COVID lockdowns,鈥� Zomateo CEO Deepinder Goyal wrote in a to employees. 鈥淎 large number of restaurants have already shut down permanently, and we know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I expect the number of restaurants to shrink by 25-40% over the next 6-12 months. What actually happens, for better or worse, is anybody鈥檚 guess.鈥�

In addition to layoffs, all employees at Zomato will be taking temporary pay reductions.

Zomato鈥檚 investors include and . Swiggy is backed by investors including and .

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