Mensa Brand Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which operates the ecommerce brand roll-up startup Mensa Brands, has laid off some of its employees, joining a long list of startups that have had to trim their workforce amid a tough macroeconomic environment prevailing since last year.
The company, which has over 700 employees, appears to have handed the pink slip to at least 200 people across divisions, media reports said.
However, a Mensa Brands spokesperson refuted the claims that the number of employees let go was as much as 200 and said the company laid off about 30 people who were part of its India Lifestyle Network (ILN) division.
“ILN is committed to providing the best content to its consumers and services to its client partners. To improve efficiency post-integration, we restructured some teams that impacted a few positions. This activity affected less than 30 team members in ILN and there have been no layoffs in other parts of Mensa,” said the spokesperson.
“We are dedicated to supporting those affected by providing each of them up to three months’ salary, extended health insurance and support in finding new roles,” the spokesperson added.
Mensa Brands had acquired ILN from Times Internet in December 2022. After the acquisition, lifestyle portals MensXP, iDiva, and creator management and marketing company Hypp became part of Mensa's portfolio.
The layoffs were first reported by news website Moneycontrol.
The layoffs come a few months after Mensa said that it raised Rs 300 crore ($36 million) in a debt funding round from alternative debt platform TradeCred.
Around the same period, VCCircle reported that the Tiger Global-backed company was planning to raise $100-150 million (Rs 827-1,241 crore) in funding as part of its strategy to acquire more consumer-facing brands. The company, which buys small brands and helps them grow with the help of marketing, financial and distribution operations, was in early talks with some existing and new asset managers for the potential fundraise, VCCircle reported at the time.
Launched in 2021 by Ananth Narayanan, Mensa follows a ‘house of brands’ strategy, in which it acquires and partners with digital-first brands, with the goal of accelerating growth by providing on-the-ground expertise and tech-led interventions in marketing and operations.
The Bengaluru-based startup claims to have onboarded 25 brands across fashion, home, beauty and FMCG and has employees across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurugram, the UAE, and the US.
Mensa raised more than $300 million (about Rs 2251 crore) in equity and debt within six months of starting operations, becoming the fastest entrant among Indian Thrasio-styled ventures to enter the unicorn club of companies with more than $1 billion in valuation.
Accel, Alpha Wave Global, Norwest Venture Partners, Prosus and Tiger Global Management are among the company’s notable investors. Alteria Capital, InnoVen Capital, Piramal Capital, Stride Ventures, and TradeCredit have provided debt financing to the company.
This is the second instance of layoffs in the e-commerce space in May. Earlier this month, SoftBank-backed e-commerce platform Meesho sacked 15% of its total workforce, or nearly 251 employees. Previously, in August 2022, Meesho had let go nearly 300 employees from its grocery vertical Superstore. It had also given pink slips to about 150 employees in April last year.