Mass layoffs at Quikr: Why 2,000 employees were fired in less than 2 months?

Quikr, India's very own craigslist, has laid off most of its employees in the last month and a half. It is believed the company has handed the pink slips to around 2,000 employees in various verticals, including cars and bikes, jobs, Quikr Realty and Quikr homes. The original workforce strength was about 3,500 in all these verticals, which means more than half of them are gone now.

According to Inc42, which broke the news on Friday, Quikr has laid off 1,200 employees from its Bengaluru office alone and the rest of the firing appears to come from Pune, Delhi and Mumbai. According to a senior Quikr employee, who spoke to the paper on the condition of anonymity, said the firing spree was happening since November and it concluded on December 20.

The report further states that the employees were informed well in advance about the layoffs and have been given compensation with two months of severance pay. Also, some employees would be rehired in Quikr's other verticals.

Quikr's mass layoff doesn't appear to affect the company's tie-up with LaundryAnna as well as classified business. The Bengaluru-based online classifieds marketplace and hyperlocal services provider is expanding and starting new projects in Bengaluru and Chennai, the report said.

In addition to the mass layoff, Quikr appears to have shut down its home beauty service "AtHomeDiva," which has laid off 200 beauticians, a source revealed. While the company hasn't confirmed the layoffs, it did say the AtHomeDiva services have been discontinued.

"Due to our cross-category model, we get a good view of comparative economics of various categories we operate in. Based on this view, we recently decided to tweak the operating model in some of our categories including a change in related market offerings, which has led to discontinuation of AtHomeDiva services. These changes have also resulted in some workforce rationalisation at our end," a company spokesperson told the paper.

Reason behind Quikr layoffs

The official response on the matter is awaited, but the mass layoffs come only a week after Quikr officials were alleged of scamming the company for Rs 20 crore. The company has filed a complaint against three former employees, account manager Rakesh Kumar, area manager Rajat Goyal and zonal manager Natasha Sipani.

Several company employees from Quikr Realty and Quikr's car and bikes teams appear to be dealing with in-hand payment fraud, which caused the company a huge loss estimated at Rs 20 crore. But the company refused to reveal if the alleged scam was the reason behind the mass layoff.

"Certain anomalies have come to our notice in our PG transaction business involving our employees and we are working with external parties for legal action against all the parties involved. We may not be able to disclose more information as it may hamper the ongoing investigation," a company spokesperson was quoted as saying.