Third Wave Coffee, a Bengaluru-based specialty coffee and food startup founded in 2017, has laid off 100-120 employees or around 10% of its overall workforce, over the past two days, with another round scheduled for Friday.
The company, which was founded by Sushant Goel, Ayush Bathwal, and Anirudh Sharma, has Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath as an investor; Unacademy’s Gaurav Munjal and Roman Saini too are investors in the firm.
Who all were impacted?
According to Moneycontrol, which was the first to report the development, employees across departments such as technology, finance, marketing, business development, and app, were let go, without, however, being informed about the headcount reduction.
“The head of HR and the founder have been coming to each of us, speaking for 10-15 minutes and informing people that their roles are no longer needed in the restructured organisation,” a staffer told Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity.
The staffer further remarked how nobody knows what a ‘restructured’ organisation means. “I thought we were doing well as a company,” the person said.
This move by Third Wave Coffee, which comes just months after it raised $35 million in a Series C funding round, also impacts senior leaders in the startup.
What has Third Wave Coffee said?
In a statement to the website, Third Wave Coffee confirmed the layoffs, though the release did not give the exact number of employees relieved of their duties.
“TWC post a strategic review has decided on a one-time restructuring exercise to consolidate our teams, impacting less than 10%of the organisation. As an organisation we are in a strong position post the recent fund raise. We will continue to scale and build TWC as India’s most loved coffee brand,” the statement read.
Those being let go have been offered two months’ salary in case they wish to leave immediately, and an option to work till February 2024 if they choose to.
About Third Wave Coffee
Third Wave Coffee has 107 outlets across six states (Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh) and two Union territories (Delhi, Haryana). It competes with Cafe Coffee Day, Blue Tokai, Slay Coffee, Sleepy Owl Coffee, Hatti Kaapi, among others.