Airmeet lays off 30% of staff

Homegrown virtual events platform Airmeet has laid off nearly 75 employees, about 30 per cent of its workforce in various departments. According to a portal, the Bengaluru-based startup fired employees from sales, marketing, tech and operations departments in India, the US and Europe. Airmeet CEO Lalit Mangal said in an internal email that lower marketing budgets and rapid commoditisation of the virtual event category led to the decision. Backed by Sequoia Capital, the platform recently raised $35 million in its Series B funding round from Prosus Ventures, Sistema Asia Fund. Mangal in his email wrote, “With drastically reduced marketing budgets everywhere and rapid commoditisation of the virtual event category, our steadfast execution is not yielding the needed outcomes for retaining a healthy financial state.”