Carousell, a Singaporean consumer-to-consumer (C2C) service platform operating across Southeast Asia, is letting go of about 110 employees, or 10% of its total headcount, in an effort to reduce costs amid a challenging market condition for the tech industry.

The company announced the decision in its blog on Thursday, posted by co-founder and CEO Carousell Siu Rui Quek, saying, "I take responsibility for the decisions that have led us here. Parting with teammates, whom we are grateful to for joining us on this mission, is a very difficult decision."

Carousell, which is a Singapore-headquartered company that operates in Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and Myanmar, did not give details on its business units that would feel the heat of the layoffs. However, a spokesperson said via an email statement that some 50 roles were affected in Singapore.

The company's leaders had talked about doing what was needed, including moving to an inexpensive rental office and slashing co-founders and executives' salaries voluntarily to save budgets without cutting staff. But that was "far from enough," it said.

In the blog post, Quek also opined, "I was too optimistic about how quickly we would recover from the COVID pandemic-and actually doubled down on recruitment and investment for our business. The reality is that we were quick to grow our expenses and hire but the returns took longer than expected. It is important to act swiftly, course correct, and right size our investment levels to better align with this new reality."

Affected workers will receive at least three months' salary in addition to being allowed to extend their medical benefits and insurance coverage through June next year, stated the company. It will also pay out all remaining time off balances and offer career counseling and job search support, letting those laid-off workers keep their office laptop and LinkedIn Learning membership until June 2023.

Carousell, founded in 2012, is funded by Sequoia Capital India, Naver, 500 Global, and Rakuten Capital, with Crunchbase reporting that it has secured a total $372.6 million since inception.