Exotel lays off 80 employees
- ByStartupStory | January 20, 2023
Exotel, a virtual telecom operator and full-stack B2B customer interaction platform based in Bengaluru, has let go of 80 people.
“While 45 people, less than 5%, have been affected as a consequence of the performance improvement planning process, and 3% of our employees were affected by the restructuring, that is around 35 employees were actually let go,” Exotel Co-founder and CEO Shivakumar Ganesan said in a statement. “Exotel is an employee-first organisation, and any difficult choice that affects our people is our last resort. Some of our employees have been let go post the mid-year review as part of the performance improvement planning process, which is a standard method to track and guide business performance,” he said.
According to the official statement, employees who were terminated for poor performance were not given any severance money.
“Employees who did not achieve the level of performance expected were notified in advance to make efforts to meet the company’s standards before a final decision was made,” added Shivakumar.
Exotel was founded in 2011 as a platform that provided communication APIs for businesses in developing areas to interact with clients using audio chats. Exotel has increased the scope of its service by adding an omnichannel cloud contact centre and conversational AI technologies following the recent acquisitions of Ameyo and Cogno AI.
“Exotel is a cash positive business and we are experiencing steady growth in an uncertain economic environment. Following the merger with Ameyo and the acquisition of Cogno AI in 2021, we have experienced the usual immediate constraints any business would go through when realigning synergies. However, now Exotel as an entity is unified and stronger than ever,” Shivakumar stated
Currently, Exotel operates in more than 60 nations, including those in India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. In these regions, the business has more than 6,000 members, and its platform manages more than 50 million daily interactions over voice, video, SMS, and chat channels. HDFC Bank, Flipkart, BYJU’S, Zomato, Ola, Zerodha, and Shiprocket are a few notable clients.
“Currently, we are in a high-growth phase and by choice, we are investing into our people, product, and expansion. All of these activities do involve a high degree of expenditure but they will culminate in favourable outcomes,” Shivakumar highlighted.
Exotel intends to broaden the markets for its product offerings this year and establish itself as a full-stack cloud communications tool supplier.
“We are also continuously hiring for new roles and are looking to source fresh hires across functions,” Shivakumar said. “While our sights are on an IPO, when that is would be determined by many factors at that given time. Our immediate focus at the moment is on the business growth as well as expanding to new geographies.”
In the past 15 months, Exotel has raised almost $100 million in total across a number of loan and equity transactions, with $40 million coming from a Series D investment in January 2022 that was headed by Steadview Capital. Leading investors like A91 Partners, Blume Ventures, Sistema, and IIFL Asset Management support the startup.
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