DTC’s Daily Digest brings you the latest news on the world’s fastest growing direct-to-consumer and challenger brands. In today’s edition: Birchbox to cut 25% of global jobs; Byju's gets backing from General Atlantic; and Turo adds $30m to Series E. 

Birchbox to cut 25% of global jobs

Birchbox will cut 25% of its jobs globally, in order to reduce costs. The company, which sold its French business in January, will let go almost half of its head New York office, as part of the reduction. 

As part of the costs reduction plan, the company also intends to move some operations from the U.K. to Spain. The aim is “to reduce redundancies across the US, UK and Spain.” The cuts come nearly two years after hedge fund Viking Global bought a majority stake in the company and agreed to invest about USD$15m.

Since the opening of its first physical store in New York in 2014, Birchbox has claimed that the development of its physical presence would be key to its growth. At the end of 2018, the beauty subscription service inked a deal with Walgreens in order to establish a presence in 11 stores in major cities across the US. On the contrary, the now independent French branch intends to accelerate its development in data and e-commerce both in France and in Europe.

Byju's gets backing from General Atlantic

Indian education firm Byju’s has announced that General Atlantic, an existing investor in the startup, has pumped additional money to join its new, ongoing financing round.

While the Bangalore-based startup, which helps students learn concepts from math and science using short videos, did not disclose the size of General Atlantic’s check, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that the New York-headquartered equity firm had invested USD$200m in the new round at a valuation of USD$8bn.

The announcement today comes weeks after Tiger Global invested USD$200m in the nine-year-old startup, which claimed profitability before the new financing round.

The new round, which has helped Byju’s valuation climb from about $5.7 billion a year ago to $8 billion, has made the edtech startup the third most valuable private firm in India after financial services firm Paytm (valued at USD$16bn) and budget-hotel operator Oyo (valued at USD$10bn).

Turo adds $30m to Series E

Turo, an online rental car marketplace, has raised USD$30m in an extension to its Series E round, leading to a total Series E round size of USD$280m.

Allen & Company LLC, Larry Fitzgerald, and 2 Chainz joined the latest investment in the San Francisco-based company, which offers peer-to-peer car-sharing. The new round of funding brings Turo’s total funding to USD$500m.

Turo, which was founded in 2010 and is based in San Francisco, lets car owners rent out their vehicles on its website and app. Those looking to rent a car can find one in more than 5,500 cities in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Germany, according to Turo’s website.

The company has more than 14 million members and more than 450,000 listed vehicles, according to a Turo spokeswoman. Its revenue is growing more than 60% year-over-year.

Want this in your Inbox? Sign up to our newsletter here!