New Delhi, May 19 (IANS): Edtech platform Vedantu has laid off 424 more employees, nearly 7 per cent of its workforce, as the online education space shrinks in the country.

"There is no easy way to say this but I am truly sorry. Out of 5900 Vedans (employees), 424 of our fellow teammates i.e about 7 per cent of our company, will be parting with us," said Vamsi Krishna, CEO and co-founder of Vedantu, in a blog post.

"This has been an extremely difficult call to make, and I want each Vedan to understand why V (Vedantu) had to take this call and what it means to you and the future of Vedantu," Krishna added.

The company earlier fired 200 of its contractual and full-time employees.

Edtech platforms are seeing a significant dip in the demand for online learning and some of such firms have either shut shops or fired employees in recent days.

Krishna said the external environment is tough as the Russia-Ukraine war, impending recession fears, and Fed rate interest hikes have led to inflationary pressures with massive correction in stocks globally and in India.

"Given this environment, capital will be scarce for upcoming quarters. With Covid tailwinds receding, schools and offline models opening up, the hyper-growth of 9X, Vedantu experienced during the last 2 years will also get moderated. For the long term sustenance of the mission, V would need to adapt too," the Vedanta CEO added.

Unacademy recently laid off nearly 600 employees, contractual workers and educators -- about 10 per cent of its 6,000-strong workforce across the group.

WhiteHat Jr has also shut its schools division that last year targeted to take its flagship coding curriculum to 10 lakh school students by the next academic year.

In a nightmare for nearly 1,000 employees, homegrown edtech startup Lido Learning which is backed by top entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala, shut operations in February this year.