S’pore edtech start-up Geniebook cuts 3% of staff amid renewed demand for on-site learning
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Geniebook co-founder and chief executive Neo Zhizhong said employees were offered a severance package ranging from one to five months’ pay, based on their tenure and seniority.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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SINGAPORE – Local edtech start-up Geniebook has shed 11 staff – its third round of layoffs in little over a year – as demand for online teaching plunges.
The 11 redundancies at the e-learning platform, which provides both online and in-person tuition for students from Primary 1 to JC2, comprises about 3 per cent of its 400-strong workforce.
They follow two earlier rounds of cuts in 2023, which affected 93 employees, or around 13 per cent of its then headcount of over 700.
Several freelancers and contractors also left the firm between 2023 and 2024 when their contracts were not renewed.
The three rounds of layoffs have hit employees across various departments, including teachers, marketing executives and the engineering team.
Geniebook co-founder and chief executive Neo Zhizhong said employees were offered a severance package ranging from one to five months’ pay, based on their tenure and seniority. They were also offered a notice period varying from one to three months.
Mr Neo told The Straits Times on Aug 21 that the firm expanded “too aggressively” during the Covid-19 pandemic to meet the demand for online education.
He added that as the pandemic has subsided, the demand for on-site classes has grown, leading the firm to focus on providing in-person learning at its four tuition centres in Singapore.
Thus, employees such as teachers who could only conduct online lessons and software engineers working on the firm’s online capabilities were let go, Mr Neo said.
“The main reasons for the layoffs are... financial prudence and a shift in strategy. These adjustments are necessary to ensure that we can continue to provide a high-quality educational experience to our students in both the online and physical space,” he added.
Geniebook was founded in 2017 and provides English, Chinese, mathematics and science classes for primary, secondary and junior college students. In addition to online and in-person tuition, it uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create personalised worksheets for students. They can also participate in moderated chat groups to interact with peers and ask questions.
Headquartered in Singapore, the firm has a presence in Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and China.
Its user base tripled to around 150,000 between 2019 and 2021, driven by demand for online tuition classes during the pandemic.
Geniebook’s last capital injection came in 2021, when it secured US$16.6 million (S$21.7 million) in a funding round led by East Ventures and Lightspeed Capital Ventures, with contributions from angel investors, including senior executives from Grab, Gojek and Shopee.
