Bhavish Aggarwal-led AI startup Krutrim has reportedly laid off another 20-25 employees in its second round of layoffs this year, with the latest exercise affecting nearly half of its estimated remaining workforce.
The latest job cuts primarily impacted the startup’s product and engineering teams, ET reported, citing sources. The startup had an estimated 40-50 employees before the latest restructuring exercise. Krutrim’s sales, go-to-market, and business operations teams had already been significantly reduced in earlier rounds of restructuring.
Employees were informed about the layoffs individually through calls with the HR team, which described the exercise as part of an organisational restructuring. According to the report, several teams have now been reduced to a single employee.
The startup is now trying to automate a significant portion of internal operations, employing AI across workflows wherever possible.
Separately, multiple employees alleged that reimbursements for travel, food and accommodation expenses have remained unpaid for over five months. They also claimed delays in leave encashment and salary payments, with one employee telling ET that pending dues were being cleared in installments.
“Krutrim continues to be in an active phase of scaling its operations and, like any growing business, periodically reviews its team structure to align with evolving priorities. We do not have anything further to share on the specifics referenced in your query at this time,” a Krutrim spokesperson said in response to questions shared by Inc42.
The layoffs come months after Krutrim pivoted away from its original ambition of building a full-stack AI ecosystem spanning indigenous large language models (LLMs) and semiconductor capabilities. Instead, the startup has shifted its focus to AI cloud infrastructure and enterprise services. Krutrim also discontinued its consumer-facing AI assistant Kruti, while continuing to offer Krutrim Cloud and Krutrim Maps.
Multiple Restructuring Exercises At Krutrim
Krutrim has steadily reduced its workforce over the past year through multiple restructuring exercises. In July 2025, the startup laid off around 50 employees. It followed this up with another round of layoffs in September 2025, affecting about 100 employees, largely from its linguistics team.
Sources told Inc42 earlier that Krutrim’s workforce shrank from more than 550 employees in August 2025 to nearly 150-160 by March this year following multiple rounds of restructuring.
The startup also witnessed a series of senior-level exits across its AI research, engineering, design, and semiconductor teams over the past year.
Despite the restructuring, Krutrim said earlier this year that its revenue crossed ₹300 Cr in FY26, nearly three times the previous fiscal. It also claimed to have reported its first annual net profit following its strategic pivot towards AI cloud services.
However, Inc42 had earlier reported that nearly 90% of Krutrim’s FY25 operating revenue of ₹101.7 Cr came from Ola Group companies, highlighting its dependence on internal customers even as it looks to expand its external enterprise client base. The startup has since said it works with more than 25 enterprise customers across sectors such as mobility, fintech and ecommerce, although it has not publicly disclosed their name.
Founded in 2023 by Aggarwal, Krutrim became India’s first AI unicorn in 2024 after it raised a $50 Mn in a funding round led by Matrix Partners India and other investors.
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