Google-backed ed-tech startup Adda247 has reportedly laid off around 200 employees (~ 20% of its workforce) as the company looks to cut costs amid slowing revenue growth. The layoffs affected teams across product, content, design, and competitive exam categories, including CUET and UPSC prep, reports Business Standard. The development becomes significant as the Gurugram-based startup is preparing for a possible IPO, with the restructuring aimed at improving profitability and reducing operational expenses.
According to the report, the layoffs were carried out at Adda247’s Gurugram office around April 30. Employees across several business verticals were impacted, including teaching staff involved in judiciary and civil services preparation.
Founded in 2016, Adda247 built its business around online preparation for government and competitive exams, including banking, SSC, railways, UPSC, NEET, CUET, and state-level recruitment tests. The startup has raised around $67 million so far from investors, including Google, WestBridge Capital, Info Edge, and Asha Impact. Adda247 was once seen as one of the fastest-growing edtech platforms in India’s government-exam preparation market, particularly among Hindi-speaking and Tier-2 and Tier-3 city users.
The company generated around ₹240 crore in revenue in FY25, while losses stood at about ₹70 crore. Although Adda247 has reduced losses compared to previous years, growth has reportedly slowed in some online learning segments. The company’s test-preparation business still contributes nearly 75% of total revenue, while skilling and CUET preparation make up the remaining share.
The report also indicated that Adda247 has seen weaker traction in StudyIQ, the civil-services-focused platform it acquired in 2021 for around $20 million. Some online learning verticals have reportedly struggled to maintain growth after the pandemic-driven surge in digital education faded. The company had also shut its Hindi-language CUET vertical recently.
This is not the first major workforce reduction at Adda247. The company reportedly laid off around 250-300 employees in 2023 across sales, faculty, and content operations. Reports also claimed that around 50-100 faculty members were either let go or shifted to contractual and freelance roles in 2025 as the company tried to reduce fixed costs. Notably, over the past three years, several Indian edtech companies have announced layoffs, restructuring plans, or shutdowns as the sector moved from rapid expansion to profitability-focused operations.
Meanwhile, the timing is important because Adda247 is actively preparing for a public listing over the next 12 to 18 months. Investors have increasingly pushed Indian startups to focus on profitability, lower cash burn, and operational efficiency before entering public markets. And reports suggest the latest layoffs could help the company save nearly ₹5 crore annually in salary expenses.
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Ashutosh is a Senior Writer at The Tech Portal, largely reporting on new tech, and intersection of technology and business. Ashutosh’s career spans across nearly a decade of technology writing across multiple platforms and languages.
