Automation startup Tekion cuts staff by 10%, 200 Indian workers affected

New Delhi: US-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) automation startup Tekion has laid off about 10 per cent of its workforce, or around 300 employees, as part of a cost-cutting exercise, the media reported.

About 200 of the 300 employees affected by the layoffs were from Tekion's India office, reports Inc42, citing sources.

The company has offices in Bengaluru and Chennai, and the majority of its employees are based in India.

According to the report, the layoffs affected employees from teams such as tech, sales, marketing, talent acquisition, and human resources, among others.

The startup also confirmed the layoffs citing "changing macroeconomic conditions" as the reason behind it.

"Building a large-scale business while keeping our mission intact requires us to make tough, but important business decisions; mainly organisational adjustments to navigate through changing macroeconomic conditions," Marylou Hastert, vice-president of marketing at Tekion, was quoted as saying.

"This week, we have made the difficult decision to reduce a small percentage of our workforce in some areas of the business. We deeply empathise with these impacted colleagues and are working to support them with their career transitions with severance pay, outplacement assistance, and additional support through our Employee Assistance Program," she added.

Moreover, the report mentioned that the company failed to achieve the revenue targets which it projected to its investors earlier and was the main reason behind the layoffs.

In addition, the startup is also rebuilding some of its products as it failed to generate revenue.

Tekion, founded in 2016 by former Tesla CIO Jay Vijayan, is a cloud-native SaaS platform that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to connect OEMs, retailers/dealers, and consumers on a single platform. The startup provides a complete dealer management system that allows dealers to review vehicle inventory and service department metrics.