Twitter rival Koo has laid off 30% of its 260 workforce to manage costs and streamline the business, amid a global slowdown.
The startup disclosed that the global sentiment right now is more focused on efficiency than growth and businesses need to work towards proving unit economics.
Speaking on its decision to lay off some members of its workforce, the company disclosed that like most startups, Koo has built in a workforce account for spikes.
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The company said via a statement,
“Given the current market environment and external realities of a global slowdown, we get affected too. We are a young startup with a long way ahead of us. It is important for businesses of all sizes to adopt efficient and conservative approaches to see this period through.
“In line with this, we have acted on some role redundancies by letting go of 30% of our workforce over the course of the year and have supported them through compensation packages, extended health benefits, and outplacement services. We are well capitalized with our recent fundraising of $10 million in January 2023. We aren’t looking at raising funds right now. We are making great progress with revenue and will look to raise funds in the future as necessary”.
The Indian microblogging and social networking service has laid off employees in two cycles from September to March. In September 2022, the Company laid off 15 staffers, and collectively the number of layoffs is around 90.
Founded in 2020, the startup has so far raised over $70 million from investors such as Accel, Blume Ventures, Kalaari Capital, and several others. In its three years of launch, Koo has surpassed 60 million downloads.
The app increased in popularity after a weeklong standoff between Twitter and the Government of India over Twitter’s refusal to block accounts during the 2020–2021 Indian farmers’ protest. The government demanded that Twitter block the accounts of hundreds of activists, journalists, and politicians, accusing them of spreading misinformation.
As of November 2022, the company was valued at over $275 million, and it also claims to be the second-largest microblog available to the world, with 20+ global languages and started its monetization in September 2022. It also has over a hundred brands advertising on its platform.
Koo’s interface is similar to that of Twitter, allowing users to categorize their posts with hashtags and tag other users in mentions or replies. The platform uses a yellow-and-white interface which gives it an appealing feel to users.
On 4 May 2021, Koo introduced a new feature called “Talk to Type” which allows its users to create a post with the app’s voice assistant. On 14 March 2023, the company integrated ChatGPT in Koo so that users can use it to create content and posts.