Urban Ladder had to let go 90 employees to be back on track for growth

• Bengaluru-based Urban Ladder has sacked 90 employees in order to save the company from sinking.
• Reports say that the company took the step as it was unable to raise funds.
• Urban Ladder has marquee investors like Ratan Tata, Sequoia India, Steadview Capital, SAIF Partners, Kalaari Capital, among others on its board.

Indian furniture retail startup Urban Ladder has reportedly laid off about 100 employees. The startup is known to have taken this decision as it was unable to raise funds to scale. It is also struggling to attain profitability.

In an interview to the Hindu Business Line, the startup’s founder and CEO Ashish Goel said that the move to fire employees was taken as they had no other option, for they would have had to shut down otherwise.

However, Urban Ladder has clarified that the incident happened 3 months ago.

"As an organization, February and March were not easy months for us, as we are a company that deeply appreciates its employees. Having said that, after taking those tough calls, we are happy to know that the employees we did part ways with have used Urban Ladder as a great stepping stone to pursue other, great opportunities within the industry and beyond. We look forward to the future as we have some exciting things in store in the upcoming few months,” said Goel.

According to the official statement from the company, in February/March, 90 employees (from the head office in Bengaluru) had been let go from the organization. The previous total headcount number was 957 and now is 711 which amounts to about 25% and it also includes third party employees and resources.

The startup had been looking to raise funds for the longest time but had been unable to do so. Reports also say that Urban Ladder’s losses although reduced from last year, were still a significant amount. Its losses were ₹4.59 billion in 2016-17 and ₹1.17 billion in 2017-18.

The news comes as a surprise one as Urban Ladder had successfully raised funding in the past. Some of its marquee investors include Ratan Tata, Sequoia India, Steadview Capital, SAIF Partners, Kalaari Capital, amongst others.

In September 2018, reports said that, that the startup was looking to raise $30-40 million to expand its business. Urban Ladder was founded in 2012, had evolved to be a furniture brand and had even opened offline outlets in Bengaluru and Delhi NCR.

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