News: Rivigo sacked 70 to 100 employees & withdrew 50 on-campus offers

Employee Relations

Rivigo sacked 70 to 100 employees & withdrew 50 on-campus offers

As per the report, Gazal Kalra, the cofounder of Rivigo, attributed the recent attrition to “performance and market dynamics.”
Rivigo sacked 70 to 100 employees & withdrew 50 on-campus offers

Technology-enabled logistics company, Rivigo has in recent times been under pressure from investors to cut costs, move away from an asset-heavy business, and improve its unit economics across all business verticals. Now, the latest report suggests that Gurugram-based company has even laid off 70 to 100 employees over the last few months.

Besides sacking employees, Rivigo has also withdrawn around 50 offers from 10 premier campuses, including National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Indian School of Business, Indian Institute of Technology, and Indian Institute of Management, before joining dates. 

While cofounder Gazal Kalra attributed the recent attrition to ‘performance and market dynamics’, she also confirmed that the campus placement offers have been rolled back. 

Rivigo was receiving pressure from investors to cut costs as it has not been able to charge a premium for its fast relay service, and its asset-light freight business also had gaps, which led to misuse by some truckers. This is probably why most of the layoffs also happened mainly in its freight marketplace team. 

On one hand, Rivigo has been asked to improve its unit economics across all business verticals, on the other, it last week had raised $65 Mn (about Rs 445 crore), led by existing investors. This is the second round of funding led by Warburg Pincus and SAIF Partners, after a gap of 18 months. 

Despite the cost issues and the layoffs, Kalra remain hopeful about the company's operations. She shared that Rivigo had significantly improved margins in the past year across its three lines of business - Full Truck Load, Part Truck Load and Freight Brokerage.

“Our gross margins have doubled, we are operating profitable — achieved through focus on operational efficiencies,” said Kalra. 

Founded in 2014, Rivigo works on a relay trucking model that allows drivers to drive for a maximum of four-five hours at a stretch and reach home the same day. Now, they also look forward to provide a Relay-as-a-Service to small fleet owners through its freight platform. 

Rivigo’s operations and plans of product expansion might be in place, but it still has to compete with the likes of BlackBuck and Delhivery, some of the other players in the market. 

 

 

Image credit: Rivigo.com

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Topics: Employee Relations

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