IPO-bound company OYO is laying off 600 people on its tech team and hiring 250 in sales positions

Major hospitality operator OYO has announced it will cut 10 percent of its workforce and lay off 600 of its 3,700 employees, mostly in technical roles. However, the company will also hire 250 new employees in other roles.

The company said it was making “major changes in its organizational structure.” It is downsizing its product and engineering divisions, corporate headquarters and OYO Vacation Homes teams, while planning to strengthen its partner relationship management and business development teams.

The product and engineering teams would be merged for smoother functioning, the company said in a statement, adding that the downsizing of the technology was also happening in teams developing pilots and proofs of concept, such as: B. In-App Games and Social Content Curation , and Content Contributed by Patrons.

The company added that members of projects that have now been successfully developed and deployed, such as B. “Partner SaaS”, were either fired or reinstated in core areas of products and technologies such as AI-driven pricing, ordering and payments.

According to a person close to the company, these layoffs are expected to last over two weeks.

As the integration of various functions of the European holiday home business progressed, some parts of the business were downsized to increase efficiency and leverage synergies, the statement said.

The company said it has also reassessed the basis of its corporate headquarters, merging congruent roles and flattening team structures where necessary.

Commenting on the reorganization, Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and Group CEO of OYO said: “We will do everything in our power to ensure that most of the people we have to lay off are employed. Each member of the OYO team and myself will proactively support the strength of each of these employees. It is unfortunate that we have to part with many of these talented individuals who have made valuable contributions to the company. As OYO grows and future needs arise for some of these roles, we are committed to reaching out to them first and providing them with the opportunity.”

The company will assist as many employees as possible with outplacement and continue their health insurance coverage for an average of 3 months.

These layoffs come at a time when many other big startups are laying off employees.

There were numerous layoffs, especially in the edtech sector. Last month, SoftBank-backed edtech unicorn Unacademy laid off 350 employees. The company’s competitor, Byju’s, had also begun laying off 2,500 of its 50,000 workers.

Previously, B2B e-commerce unicorn Udaan also laid off 10 percent of its workforce and laid off 350 employees.

Additionally, food aggregator Zomato recently reportedly initiated the layoff of 3 percent of its workforce.