Micro-blogging platform Koo says 15 employees fired, not 40

Homegrown micro-blogging platform Koo on Tuesday refuted earlier reports that it had  laid off 40 employees and clarified that only 15 employees, or 5 per cent of its workforce has been fired.

In a fresh statement to media, the Twitter rival said that 15 positions “have been made redundant or removed due to performance issues.  This is completely aligned with the industry standards of hiring and retrenchment. At the same time, Koo continues to hire talent in its monetisation, product and engineering teams.”

The company spokesperson also said Aprameya Radhakrishna, Co-founder and CEO, Koo, was recently in London for an industry event for Indian entrepreneurs and not to raise funds. She “did not meet any funders or high net worth individuals (HNIs) in London and did not engage in any fundraising activity,” said the company.

Koo has so far raised $44.1 million to date. Launched in March 2020, Koo is currently available in 10 languages — Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Assamese, Bengali and English.

According to the platform, it has over 45 million downloads and is actively leveraged by 7,000 high-profile people from across the spectrum.

Koo is backed by Tiger Global and early stage investors like Accel, Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures and Dream incubator. In February this year, Koo raised $10 million. Its investors include Capsier Venture Partner, Ravi Modi Family Trust, Ashneer Grover, FBC Venture Partners, Adventz Finance among others.