HealthifyMe sacks 150 employees amid lacklustre growth

Leading AI health and fitness platform HealthifyMe has sacked at least 150 employees as the company's growth did not "keep pace with expectations and hiring."

The company has a physical presence in Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Singapore.

The company said in a statement that it "had to take the tough decision to let go 150 of our team members."

"Like much of tech, growth hasn't kept pace with expectations and hiring," the company added.

The platform offered a severance package of two months to the laid-off employees, with two weeks per year served at the start-up.

"As a part of our severance and support to those impacted, we will offer 2 months' salary severance with 2 weeks per year served at HealthifyMe, vested stocks till March 2023, and medical insurance continuance till June 2023, along with counselling and outplacement support," said the company.

According to the company, it caters to more than 30 million users in over 300 cities with over 2,000 coaches.

The healthtech platform raised $75 million (roughly Rs 560 crore) in a Series C round led by LeapFrog and Khosla Ventures in July of this year.

The company aimed to use the funds to expand in India and Southeast Asia, make inroads into North America as well as to acquire relevant companies in the digital health and fitness space.

"We are already the market leaders in India and Southeast Asia and by combining AI and human empathy, we can deliver results in weight and lifestyle disease management at a fraction of the cost possible today," Tushar Vashisht, Co-founder and CEO, HealthifyMe, had said in a statement.

While HealthifyMe's base has been India, it has been expanding internationally, and now nearly 25 percent of its revenues come from outside the country, like Malaysia and Singapore, the company said in July.

The company had also said it would hire over 1,000 trainers and coaches this year.

"We are also undergoing an evolution with our new vision around metabolic health (HealthifyMe 2.0) which requires different resources. In view of this and changing market dynamics, it made sense for us to steer toward profitability, despite a comfortable runway," the company spokesperson said in the latest statement.