As startup layoffs continue, Mobile Premier League and FrontRow fire 245 people

• MPL and edtech startup FrontRow laid off over 245 employees on Monday, May 30.
• FrontRow has laid off 145 full time employees, whereas MPL let go of 100 employees.
• The layoffs are a result of a much anticipated funding winter that is going to leave companies fend for themselves.

Gaming unicorn Mobile Premier League (MPL) and edtech startup FrontRow have laid off over 245 employees on Monday, May 30. The development comes at a time when several stakeholders of the Indian startup ecosystem have been anticipating a long funding winter in the near future.

Learning and community platform FrontRow has laid off 145 full time employees, which represent nearly a third of the company’s total workforce. It has already confirmed the reports and noted that they have enough funds to survive for the next 24 months and plan to improve their core business offering. The development was first reported by Inc42.

FrontRow is not the only edtech company to lay off this season, even unicorns like Unacademy and Vedantu have laid off 1,549 from their workforce this year. According to several experts Business Insider spoke with, edtech is going to be one of the worst impacted sectors.

According to a Moneycontrol report, Mobile Premier League (MPL) is laying off 100 people — representing nearly 10% of its workforce — due to the slowdown in funding. It also decided to exit the Indonesian market.

"The last few months have been insane. The philosophy of growth at all costs is now reversed. The market is now rewarding profitable growth over growth at all costs… It's imperative that we as a company respond to this change and respond fast. We have always said that the market is like a flowing river - you cannot fight it, you have to row downstream," MPL co-founders Sai Srinivas and Shubh Malhotra said in an email to employees.

The company said that the impacted employees will receive complete compensation, along with other benefits. The co-founders, in the email, also noted that the impacted employees with employee stock option (ESOP) will have the opportunity to hold onto their options for an additional 10 years.

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