MS Dhoni, Kunal Shah Backed Digital Lending Platform Khatabook Lays Off Over 40 Employees

New Delhi: Homegrown digital lending platform Khatabook, which has investors like top cricketer MS Dhoni and CRED’s Kunal Shah, among many others, has reportedly laid off over 40 employees across departments to cut costs and streamline its operations.

According to an Entrackr report, citing sources, the platform communicated job cuts to employees across sales, marketing and analytics and technology verticals in a town-hall meeting.

People, who lost their jobs in the exercise, have been given standard severance packages, including three-months salary, among others, the report said, citing people aware of the matter.

Khatabook had shut down its e-commerce enablement product MyStore in November 2021.

The platform has raised $187 million to date, including its Series C round of $100 million led by Tribe Capital and Moore Strategic. 

It also has PeakXV and Better Capital as its investors, according to the report.

Ravish Naresh, co-founder and CEO of Khatabook, had said last year that the company was aiming to clock a loan book size of Rs 1,000 crore by October 2023. 

According to Naresh, the company was likely to turn profitable in mid-2024.

According to the company’s website, it is “building utility solutions for the nation’s 6.3 crore-strong MSME sector”. 

“Our first offering -- an Android App enabling businesses to digitally record the credit they extend to customers -- went viral and so far Khatabook has been downloaded over 5 crore+ times,” it reads.

Sriram Krishnan, general partner at the top VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) where he invests in early-stage consumer startups, is also one of the angel investors in Khatabook.