Meesho lays off 251 employees, cites hiring error

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
May 5, 2023

E-commerce platform Meesho has laid off 251 employees, which amounts to around 15% of its entire employee base. The business has stated that it over-hired and needs to streamline operations on its way to profitability. 

“I have difficult news to share,” wrote Meesho’s CEO Vidit Aatrey in an email to employees, accessed by ET Retail. “We are reducing the size of the Meesho workforce by 15%, affecting 251 employees.” Aatrey stated that the business’ executives had hired too many workers for the organisation’s size and that it must be managed in a more effective way.
 
In 2022, Meesho began to implement a cost cutting strategy to pursue profitability. The business is targeting profitability by mid-2023 and is looking for ways to meet this ambitious target. Although Meesho grew significantly in the years 2020 to 2022, the changing economic climate has made growth more challenging which led the business to fast-track its profitability goals under a strategy it named ‘Project Redbull’. 

Meesho has made an official statement to pledge to create a separation package for the employees it is letting go, ET Bureau reported. This includes a severance payment and continued insurance benefits among other features.