INDIA –Digital health platform Mfine has laid off around 500 employees, amounting to over 50% of the workforces at the Bengaluru-based company, becoming the latest to cut jobs as startups struggle to raise funds.

With the layoffs, mFine joins a growing list of startups that have laid off employees as investment shrinks and mindless cash burn comes back to haunt them.

mFine is the ninth company in the startup space to lay off employees since April. It has let go of employees in the data science, engineering, and product departments.

Recently, Vedantu, BYJU’s-owned WhiteHat Jr, Unacademy, CARS24 and more have cut workforce amid high uncertainty in the overall market conditions.

mFine was launched in 2017 by former Myntra cofounder Ashutosh Lawania and Prasad Kompalli. Lawania and Kompalli were later joined by Ajit Narayanan and Arjun Choudhary as founding members.

MFine offers telemedicine services providing services across primary, secondary and chronic care. The healthtech startup claims to have over 6,000 doctors who have served 3 million users.

According to a company press release issued in March this year, it was clocking 300,000 monthly transactions.

mFine’s last reported valuation stands at around US$450 million-US$500 million.

It is to be noted that the company raised most of its funding during the covid years which accelerated the demand for healthcare services amongst Indian users.

Over the years, the Bengaluru-based healthtech startup has raised close to has raised close to US$75 million across three equity and debt rounds to date.

MFine had raised US$68 million last year alone, of which, US$48 million came from Series C funding co-led by Moore Strategic Ventures and BEENEXT with participation from existing investors like Prime Venture Partners in September last year.

From the healthtech sector point of view, since 2014 Indian healthtech startups have raised close to US$5.3 billion in funding, out of which, a major chunk of funding, that is, US$3.2 billion came between 2020 and May (16th) 2022, Inc42 reports.

While the company has yet to file annual financial results for FY22, according to its annual financial statement filed with RoC, MFine increased its operating revenue by 152% to Rs 12.9 crore (US$1.7 million) in FY21 from Rs 5.12 crore (US$0.7 million) in FY20.

Its annual losses increased by 3.4 percent to Rs 102.7 crore (US$13.2 million) in FY21, up from Rs 99.35 crore (US$12.8 million) in FY20

Following the gold rush of 2021, the year 2022 is proving to be a litmus test for several startups in terms of funding.

While 2021 was all about funding, launching new products, and blitzscaling, 2022 is all about survival and profitability.

The global downturn has begun to have an impact on the startup ecosystem as a whole. VC funds and global ecosystem stakeholders have begun to request that founders in their portfolio reduce their expenses and burn.

Liked this article? Sign up to receive our regular email newsletters, focused on Africa and World’s healthcare industry, directly into your inbox. SUBSCRIBE HERE