Athira Sethu
Kochi, 21 December 2024
Unicorn companies are start-ups that have more than $1 billion valuations. They are vital for employment in India. But a report has now reflected that these unicorns have reduced their workforce during the last year. 116 Indian unicorns decreased their number of employees by nearly 6,700 between August 2023 and August 2024. The total strength of employees in these companies had come down from 4,17,561 to 4,10,829.
According to the report from PrivateCircle Research, the average rate of employees leaving their jobs was 4.5%. This comprises layoffs and employees who left on their own. Even though many companies reduced their workforce, others continued to grow. Each month, the number of employees either decreased by 0.9% or increased by up to 2.5%.
Murali Logananthan, director at PrivateCircle, said that most unicorns had good revenue growth despite the change in their number of employees. This, he said, means that even during high growth phases, they were using employees effectively. Companies like Zerodha, Zoho, and MapMyIndia have very low employee churn. Less than 1% of employees left some of these companies, and in the case of Ather Energy and Dream Sports, it was less than 2%.
There was a significant hiring surge in March 2024. Over 42,000 fresh recruits joined unicorns that month. Companies like Paytm, BigBasket, and PB Fintech made the most of these appointments. On the other hand, the highest number of exits was seen in September 2023, with almost 39,000 leaving their jobs.
A lot of changes in leadership have been noted by the report. More than 12 CEOs changed their positions in 2024. Such changes were triggered by business restructuring, preparation for IPOs, and increasing profitability. Many senior executives took other positions or established companies of their own.
Workforce variations were different for various regions in India. Startups in Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad have cut the number of workers while hiring the most number of freshers in companies of Delhi-NCR. PolicyBazaar, Blinkit, and Zomato were the prominent hirers in this region. Chennai and Bengaluru also witnessed an upsurge in their workforce.
Many unicorn companies in India had some issues with turnover but have continued to grow and adapt, and hence are a reflection of how things are changing in the startup world.
