According to a report by VCCircle, online media portal ScoopWhoop is downsizing its headcount across teams. It’s laying off more than a dozen employees as it is said to be closing down its news coverage operations.
Many senior members of the editorial team were asked to leave. Eight people from the core news team and six from the design team have been laid off.
“This rumor of 60-70 people (being laid off) is not true. We actually let go of about 10 people horizontally from a team of about 170. So, it is less than a 2% churn. So, I don’t know how this qualifies as a layoff. From (the) news (department), only three people were asked to go. (Overall), only 10-12 people were asked to leave. In fact, we are hiring more people. It is not like we are cutting down on costs,” said Sattvik Mishra, co-founder, and CEO of ScoopWhoop.
ScoopWhoop was founded in 2013 by Sattvik Mishra, Sriparna Tikekar, Rishi Pratim Mukherjee, Debarshi Banerjee, Saransh Singh and Suparn Pandey. All the co-founders are alumni of Indian Institute of Mass Communication. The company had raised $1.4 million from Bharti Softbank in 2014 and $4 million from Kalaari Capital in 2015.
