Fintech lender Lendingkart has fired over 200 employees or 30% of its workforce, as per an ET report. As per a company spokesperson, who confirmed the layoffs, the outbreak of COVID-19 and the resultant slowdown has had a tremendous impact on the economy.

The ongoing period has had a dampening effect on micro, small, and medium enterprises, where everything has come to a virtual standstill. NBFCs have been significantly impacted, with loan disbursements coming to a halt and moratorium impacting collections, the company added.

As a result, the company has been forced to take some measures to rationalize its employee base across offices to ensure long term sustainable business.

The spokesperson added that while the layoffs were part of its annual appraisal cycle, wherein it rationalizes the team by about 15-20% basis performance, this year, additional right sizing has been undertaken to account for the business volumes that it anticipates in this financial year. In addition, the management and leadership team have also taken significant pay-cuts.

The layoffs come in the same month in which the fintech player has raised Rs 319 Cr as part of its Series D round, in which existing investors including Fullerton Financial Holdings, Bertelsmann India Investments, Sistema Asia Fund, and IndiaQuotient participated. In all, the  Ahmedabad-based startup has raised Rs 1,050 Cr so far.

With these layoffs, the startup joins the league for many other companies that announced significant layoffs in the last week such as Indiabulls group, ShareChat, Uber, Zomato, and Swiggy among others. The COVID-19 has been a major dampener for the startup industry, with many startups staring at an uncertain future.