Geniebook sheds over 100 jobs as learning goes back to school

Geniebook, the Singapore-based edtech darling once spared from the post-pandemic slowdown that affected its peers, has laid off 117 employees since the beginning of 2023.

Speaking to Tech in Asia, Geniebook co-founder and CEO Zhizhong Neo said the “reality of the funding winter” and changing market demands led to the job cuts.

Geniebook CEO Neo Zhizhong at Tech in Asia’s Saigon Summit last May 2024 Image credit: Tech in Asia

The company, which also operates in Vietnam and Malaysia, has undergone two rounds of layoffs so far this year. It dismissed 13 employees in January, while another 11 were retrenched this month.

All of the terminated staff were based in Geniebook’s Singapore office. Members of the marketing and curriculum departments, which include teachers, were affected.

In January, Geniebook started opening tutoring centers in Singapore – now totaling four – that students could visit for offline classes. According to Neo, some teachers who had difficulty shifting to the new strategy due to “personal reasons” were let go by the company.

Employees who were part of the startup’s digital marketing efforts were also affected by the staff cuts as Geniebook focused on joining events and holding pop-ups in malls to reach more students in Singapore. Neo noted that the marketing budget was reduced by 40% to 60% from what it was in 2022 but declined to give exact figures.

He explains that the first round of layoffs happened in early 2023 and mostly affected the engineering and curriculum teams as Geniebook stopped developing “experimental” products and halted its overseas expansion plans. About 93 people working in Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia were retrenched.

The company initially planned to develop a learning product that students could use with virtual reality devices. Geniebook was also looking to scale its marketing efforts in Malaysia.

“But the market shifted very quickly, so we had to change directions drastically,” Neo says.

He added that employees who were terminated in 2023 were given a notice period of between one to three months. Geniebook also offered severance packages worth half a month to five months of pay based on tenureship and seniority.

The company has more than 400 full-time staff members as of August 2024, according to Neo.

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As pandemic-induced lockdowns drove a shift to online learning in 2021, Geniebook said it logged a 2000% surge in revenue from its 2019 performance.