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WestBridge Capital-Backed Skit.ai Lays Off 115 Employees

The start-up has offered two months of salary as a severance package to the laid-off employees and will extend their insurance coverage for the next six months

WestBridge Capital-Backed Skit.ai Lays Off 115 Employees
POSTED ON January 13, 2023 7:35 PM

Bengaluru-based software as a service (SaaS) start-up Skit.ai laid off around 115 employees on Thursday, Inc42 reported. The numbers can reportedly go as high as 130.

The layoffs which majorly affected the sales and product departments were announced by Skit.ai's chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder Sourabh Gupta during a town hall meeting. 

Most of the laid-off employees are said to be from the India team as the start-up now aims to focus on the US market.

Founded in 2016 by Sourabh Gupta and Akshay Deshraj, the start-up has an employee count of over 330 employees.

Skit.ai offers SaaS voice automation solutions to enable enterprises to automate their call centre operations. It claims that its product can respond to over 16 languages, covering more than 160 dialects and replicating human-like conversations. 

The start-up was reportedly unable to generate enough revenue from the small enterprises it was providing services to in India. Going ahead, it will provide its services only to existing large customers in India, including banks, insurance, and aviation companies. Meanwhile, it has decided to double down on the US business, said the report.

It has reportedly offered two months of salary as a severance package to the laid-off employees and will extend their insurance coverage for the next six months. Moreover, the impacted employees have also been allowed to retain office assets. 

“Our priority right now is to support them (employees) in this transition and we are fully committed to that. We are grateful to everyone who has contributed to building the company. Over the last few quarters, we are seeing significant growth in the US with an increasing customer base. Our future team requirements are according to that. We have also secured investor support for US expansion,” said Sourabh Gupta, CEO and co-founder Skit.ai. 

The start-up raised $23 million in its Series B funding round led by WestBridge Capital in September 2021. Existing investors Kalaari Capital and Exfinity Ventures, AngelList Syndicate led by Aaryaman Vir Shah of Prophetic Ventures, and LetsVenture syndicate led by Sense AI also participated in the funding round. 

Skit.ai has raised around $30 million in multiple funding rounds to date. 
 

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