Bengaluru-based Mensa Brands has fired 200 employees across divisions, with India Lifestyle Network (ILN) being the most affected.

Mensa Brands, which has a total team strength of 750-800 employees, will be trimming its workforce by around 25%, according to a report by Moneycontrol. The number of employees being affected could increase further, sources familiar with the matter told the publication.

YourStory is yet to verify the report.

The downsizing at the unicorn comes at a time when several investors and market players have flagged signs of a slowdown in the roll-up ecommerce market.

ILN, a part of Times Internet, was acquired by Mensa in December 2022. After the acquisition, companies like MensXP, iDiva, and Hypp became part of Mensa’s growing portfolio.

“Employees from ILN were called for a one-on-one session with the human resource (HR) executives and were asked to leave the very next day. While some employees were fortunate enough to get two months’ pay as compensation, a chunk of them were paid only one month’s salaries and asked to leave immediately,” one of the sources told Moneycontrol.

Founded by Ananth Narayanan in 2021, the company follows a ‘house of brands’ strategy through which it acquires several direct-to-consumer brands earning revenue up to $10 million and earns from the operations of these firms. The company has more than 25 D2C brands in its portfolio.

It spent $88.5 million (Rs 670 crore) in acquisitions in FY22, Entrackr reported. Mensa’s loss stood at $16.41 million (Rs 135 crore) while it logged a revenue of $41.2 million (Rs 310 crore) in FY22 in its first year of operations.

Between October 2021 and December 2022, the Tiger Global-backed company acquired at least 17 companies but has decelerated its acquisition spree after that. MyFitness, Dennis Lingo, Villain are among Mensa’s notable acquisitions.

With the latest decision, Mensa joins a growing list of new-age companies that have been firing employees as they look to become a leaner team, increase efficiencies and extend their cash runway as investors demand startups to become profitable.

Several large startups like Meesho, Swiggy, ShareChat and more have also let go of hundreds of employees as they pave their path toward profitability.