Bengaluru-based online classifieds marketplace Quikr has laid off 500-600 people from various verticals according to Livemint. People have been laid off across real estate, automobile and job segments.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Quikr was letting go of nearly 2,000 employees after it discontinued its AtHomeDiva services.
Quikr told IANS that it recently decided to tweak the operating model, which resulted in some "workforce rationalisation" and "discontinuation of AtHomeDiva services".
"Due to our cross-category model, we get a good view of comparative economics of various categories we operate in. Based on this, we recently decided to tweak the operating model in some of our categories, including a change in related market offerings. These changes have resulted in some workforce rationalisation at our end & discontinuation of AtHomeDiva services," Quikr reportedly said in a statement.
However, according to a report in Inc42 on Friday, the mass layoff that started in November 2018 and ended on Friday, is an outcome of a scam in which three employees allegedly forged business transactions to fictitious clients to earn millions in commission. The scam led to a loss of Rs 20 crore for the company, it said.
"Certain anomalies have come to our notice in our paying guest transaction business involving employees and we are working with external parties for legal action against all the parties involved. We may not be able to disclose more information as it may hamper the investigation," Quikr said in a statement.
According to Livemint, this scam pertains to an internal employee fraud by mid-senior employees in the sales team at Grabhouse, which was Quikr’s real estate product. Deccan Herald, which first reported the matter, said that Quikr filed a complaint against its accounts head, area manager and zonal manager, and has alleged that they cheated the company by way of faking transactions in the name of non-existent clients.
Grabhouse works similar to Nestaway, where it shares revenue with the owner. It leases the space and converts it into a branded offering.
“Some of the sales executives at Grabhouse who later became employees of Quikr formed an internal cartel…they created fake papers for properties that were being on-boarded onto Grabhouse. These properties were basically non-existent,” an ex-employee told Mint.
Mint added that Quikr pays a security deposit of Rs 5-10 lakh as deposit and renovation costs, which employees then pocketed, which could possibly stack up to crores.
However, sources told the business daily that the scam and layoffs at Quikr are not related.
With IANS inputs