Furlenco, the furniture rental startup based out of Bengaluru, has reportedly laid off between 180-200 employees involved in customer grievance redressal, scheduling and other similar customer support functions.
According to media reports, these layoffs come amidst an attempt to scale down operations, with operations in metro and non-metro cities like Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Pune to be reduced soon. The company has also outsourced functions such as asset management and collections to third parties.
This move comes amidst similar actions by companies such as Trell and LIDO Learning. Both of those companies raised money last year, but have been in the news recently for mass layoffs amongst a pivot to new business models. Furlenco had also raised $140 million in a mix of equity and debt from Zinnia Global Fund in 2021.
LIDO Learning laid off around 150 employees in February, while Trell had to let go of nearly half their workforce after a $150 million funding round with Amazon fell through. Around 300 people were reportedly laid off, out of a full-time team of 500 people, and a total team of 700 people.
Founded in 2012, Furlenco has raised money from the likes of UAE-based CE Ventures, Zinnia Global Fund, Lightbox and Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan.
Edited by Anju Narayanan