Google, Sequoia-backed Cuemath lay off 100 workers

Bengaluru-based Cuemath, a math-focused edtech startup, has fired about 100 employees, citing a conservative capital market and technology changes.

A company spokesperson confirmed the development to BQ Prime. This translates to about 12.5% of its 800-strong workforce. The cuts were carried out across departments.

Founder Manan Khurma, in a LinkedIn post, said the firings were done as part of a rationalisation of roles to reflect Cuemath’s increased focus on learning and consumer experience and retention.

“The edtech ecosystem is seeing an inflection point—conservative capital markets, rapidly changing technology and AI ecosystems, and so on. The path forward for education companies—including Cuemath—needs to be completely anchored in creating learning outcomes for the end stakeholder—the student,” he wrote.

“Given the need to deeply focus on building a great learning and consumer experience, I will get back into the role of running the company day-to-day as CEO. Our current Chief Executive Officer, Vivek Sunder—a phenomenal hyper-scale business operator—will transition from his full-time role to continue to work with me and the team in an advisory capacity on his many areas of expertise—like acquisition funnels and go-to-market strategies,” Khurma wrote.

Founded in 2013, Cuemath is backed by investors including Sequoia Capital India, Alpha Wave Incubation, and CapitalG, which is Alphabet’s growth fund and formerly known as Google Capital.

Cuemath will “continue to invest thoughtfully and hire strategically”, Khurma said.

Cuemath, in June 2022, raised about $57 million at a $407 million valuation. Bloomberg