The Worst for Indian Startups is Yet to Come

Share Us

490
The Worst for Indian Startups is Yet to Come
21 May 2022
6 min read

News Synopsis

The Indian startup scene is not as promising as it was last year. The group that grew during the pandemic is now bearing the weight of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has slowed their capacity to get finance. Indian entrepreneurs raised only $1.6 billion in April 2022, according to the latest data by IVCA-EY. This is around half of what was raised in April 2021.

To make matters worse, no company joined the unicorn club last month, despite April 2021 kicking off the unicorn creation frenzy last year with eight new members. The slowdown in unicorn development is expected to persist through the second quarter until June 2022, according to multiple experts, but this is not causing concern.

The startup industry has been on an upward trajectory for the last 18 months, according to Gaurav VK Singhvi, co-founder of investment firm We Founder Circle, and "now for a few months it seems a little lethargic." He also stated that the long-term trend would be beneficial and that more unicorns could be formed this year.

The decrease in funding in April 2022 is primarily due to a decrease in large funding rounds. VerSe Innovation, the parent company of Dailyhunt and Josh, raised the most money last month, raising $805 million at a $5 billion valuation. This represented nearly half of the capital raised by Indian startups in April.

TWN In-Focus