Upskilling startup FrontRow Lays Off 145 Employees

FrontRow, an upskilling startup has laid off 145 employees which is around 30% of its 500 workforce.

The layoffs came nearly eight months after FrontRow had raised $14 million in its Series A funding round from Eight Roads Ventures and GSV with participation from existing investors Lightspeed and Elevation Capital according to news website Inc42.

Bengaluru based FrontRow was founded in 2020 by Shubhadit Sharma, Mikhil Raj and Ishaan Preet Singh, It is a learning and community platform that offers classes taught by celebrities in fields such as music, cricket or comedy, combined with a community platform to allow learners to practice and showcase their talents through regular activities, competitions.

The platform is with 1 million+ users and has a 4.3 star rating on the App Store.

“As we’ve scaled our business over the last year, we had invested heavily in growth, particularly as we’ve been creating a new category”, said, Ishaan Preet Singh, founder of FrontRow.

“ layoffs were done in order to ‘ensure that we achieve that goal over the next decades and that we have over 24 months of runway to keep iterating and improving on our core business we had to take a few difficult prioritisation”, he added.

Ishaan cited the current market conditions as the reason for the layoffs. The employees reportedly did not receive a severance, and only received their May salary. The sales, quality control and human resources teams were reportedly affected. He said in his statement that the impact was “primarily in sales”.

About FrontRow

FrontRow is a learning and community platform focused on creative arts and sports that enables everyone to pursue their passions.

FrontRow offers classes taught by celebrities in fields such as music, cricket or comedy, paired with a community platform that gives learners regular activities, competitions and peer engagement to practice and showcase their talent. With 1 Million+ Users and 4.3 Star Rating on the app store and backed by some of the best investors in the country, they make it easy to learn from your dream mentors, and make learning and upskilling fun!