SoftBank-backed Meesho lays off 150 employees from grocery vertical

SoftBank-backed internet commerce firm Meesho has downsized its grocery vertical Meesho SuperStore (formerly Farmiso) in an attempt to drive efficiency.

The Bengaluru-based firm did not reveal the number of laid-off employees.

However, the company officials said that about 150 employees have been laid off.

“As we look to boost efficiencies in the light of the integration, a small number of full-time roles and certain third-party positions on six-month contracts at Meesho Superstore were reassessed to remove redundancies with the core business,” said the company in a blog post.

“To support those impacted by this restructuring, Meesho is offering severance packages and outplacement assistance to help them secure new opportunities outside the company.

"The redundancies do not impact any positions at the core Meesho marketplace business, where we continue to hire and grow talent.”

Meesho launched online grocery services, Meesho Superstore, as a pilot in Karnataka less than nine months ago.

With this foray, the idea was to meet consumer demand for affordable daily essentials in Tier 2+ markets as it aspires to become the single shopping destination for the next billion Indians.

In a short span, the firm has scaled the offering to six states – Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

It now plans to make it available in 12 states by the end of 2022.

Last week, the firm said it was integrating the grocery business within the core app to provide Meesho users a unified shopping experience, while driving stronger synergies across areas like customer acquisition, technology, product and talent.

Meesho Superstore currently provides 500 products across categories like fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, groceries, home care and packaged food, among others.

The integration will now provide the company’s over 100 million Meesho users access to over 87 million active product listings across 36 categories on a single platform.

"As we continue to scale our efforts to make online grocery affordable for users across Tier 2+ markets, these changes will ensure we have the right framework in place to meet the growing needs of our customers," said the company.

This week edtech unicorn Unacademy laid off about 600 employees comprising nearly 10 per cent of its workforce in a move that is being seen as a focus on profitability as well as consolidation and cost-cutting drive in the space amid the pandemic, according to the sources.