Used Car Startup Spinny Fires Over 300 Employees In Cost Cutting Drive

Gurgaon-based used car startup Spinny has laid off around 300 or at least 5% of its employees, according to a report by Moneycontrol. The layoff was a part of a cost-cutting drive which has hit Truebil and Spinny Max staffers the hardest as the two divisions merge.

The layoffs were reportedly announced by co-founder and CEO Niraj Singh during a town hall meeting on August 2. The announcement came amid  the demand for used cars has slowed down across the industry after a sharp growth during the coronavirus pandemic years.

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"The company has told employees that both Truebil and Spinny Max will now be merged and operate under the main Spinny brand because of which there will be job redundancies," sources were quoted as saying by Moneycontrol.

The used car company had acquired Truebil, which is a Mumbai-based rival company of Spinny, to strengthen its presence in the budget car segment. On the other hand, Spinny Max deals with pre-owned luxury cars from companies like BMW, Mercedes and Jeep, which translates to bigger ticket sizes for the company.

According to reports, Spinny had over 6,000 employees and it sacked over 5% of its workforce. 

Some employees took to Linkedin to talk about their layoff.  "I would like to announce that I have been laid off (from) Spinny... My tenure here was a very enriching but short-lived one. As bitter as this may be, life goes on…," said a LinkedIn user.

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“This business reorganisation will strengthen our go-to-market business model, reduce costs and improve our margin profile, putting us on an expedited path to profitability. However, it will impact approximately 4.5 percent of our total workforce as we consolidate our operations under a single brand," sources further said.

Gurugram-based Spinny is a direct competitor of Cars24, which too had fired over 600 employees in May last year. 

The funding in the Indian startup ecosystem has dried up due to winter funding. The Indian startup ecosystem has so far fired around 25,000 people since early 2022.