Social Commerce Startup "Shox" Officially Closed and Layoffs of All Employees [Updated]

Startups social commerce Shox Rumahan officially closed operations and laid off all of its employees as of February 25, 2023. Based on information reported by Tech in Asia, Chief Commercial Officer Shox Mari Octavyani Manao only stated the reason "loss" without further explanation.

For information, Shox operates with the legal entity PT. Soyaka Smart Rich since 2019. Shox was founded by Sonat Yalcinkaya (Rich) and Mari Octavyani Manao or Vyani. Meanwhile, Vyani is the Co-founder of Pakde, a logistics startup that was acquired by Shipper in 2020.

Previously, a Shox employee tweeted that the layoffs were carried out unilaterally, and were due to bankruptcy. "Layoffs occur unilaterally and the reasons change. Initially, [we] were fired due to bankruptcy, and a month later the termination letter was changed to efficiency due to losses for two years," said the account. @prabu_yudianto on his Twitter page.

He added, the two reasons presented by Shox's C-level were not accompanied by evidence so that for a month the employees felt adrift without clarity.

Furthermore, explained Prabu, Shox announced layoffs four times from January to February 25 2023. "The peak was on February 25, C-level held town hall and declared all employees to be laid off by reason of bankruptcy. There is no evidence that the company is bankrupt. Just a one-sided statement from the company, without any clarity regarding the dismissal and severance scheme."

In addition, the affected employees sat down with Shox Co-founder Vyani Manao on March 17 2023 to discuss the unclear severance pay and salaries. However, there was no clear meeting point because the employees were only promised that the SPHK would be issued on March 23.

Got funding

Shox is not even a year after acquiring series A pendanaan funding of $5,5 million (approximately IDR 79 billion) in April 2022. This funding was injected by Ephesus United, AC Ventures, Teja Ventures, SGInnovate, Partech and a number of other investors.

Shox is an application for fulfilling home needs, from kitchen equipment to electronic devices. By using the concept social commerce, Shox's service allows users to earn through partnership/community programs. The application also provides a social gathering feature. Based on the latest observations, the Shox Home application has been downloaded by tens of thousands on the Google Play Store.

Throughout 2022, DailySocial.id saw a number of startups in the derivatives sector E-commerce forced pivot for not finding economic units ideal for achieving sustainability. Some of them are Bananas (closed and pivot to new business), Radius (pivot ke social commerce and rebranding becomes Bakool), and Brambang (close and pivot ke marketplace electronic products)