A very happy new year to all our readers….
We thank all of you for supporting us in 2018…….we request all of you to encourage in the years to come….because your encouragement is a booster dosage for our existence….
Lets have a glance at the last year from the leaves of this editorial and analyse what we have learnt to have a successful 2019…….
A note of apology to our readers: After the eve and New Year celebrations over, we kept this issue pending since we did not want this synopsis being given a cold shoulder, while thanking you all for the long wait we have done our best to gather the information for yielding good reading experience. So sit back and relax while you have a snapshot of 2018……
The Indian StartUp Ecosystem had churned its own Bollywood potboiler type scenario in 2018. The ecosystem saw good highs and too lows too in this eventful year. The bright side was the ecology had registered almost 3000 new Innovative StartUps this year. There were some major acquisitions and funding that have over lapped the preceding years.
On the other side many have shut doors or have turned dormant without valid reasons. And even a few were found cheating the banks by getting loans after mortgaging government school properties.
Sleuths have booked cases against Hyderabad based ANNA ECO LOGIKS Pvt Ltd and BAKEY’S FOODS Pvt Ltd., for mortgaging non-existent properties.
Nearly thirteen StartUps were able to grab about USD 100 Mn from investors while there were seven more entities that entered the Indian UNICORN club.
The ecosystem hosted many major events to connect various StartUps at a place. While World’s largest StartUp summit was held at Vadodara, Gujarat between July 01 – 10, SAYAJI STARTUP SUMMIT 2018. South had its own STARTUPS CLUB’s DEMO DAY 2018 held on the 15th & 16th of December at KTPO, Bengaluru.
The DIPP rankings of state were out with GUJARAT being adjudged as the BEST PERFORMER OF 2018. On the other hand, Delhi and Maharashtra which played a pivotal role in enhancing the ecology failed to make a huge mark on the rankings and were categorised as EMERGING States. Analysts felt that it was the irony of the present setup.
While WALMART drew daggers with e-commerce giants by acquiring FLIPKART, FACEBOOK appeases INDIAN agencies by appointing AJIT MOHAN as head of Indian operations. Even WHATSAPP is planning on similar grounds to launch its WHATSAPP PAY.
Snapshot of Funding in 2018: ASHISH KASHYAP‘s INDwealth, a wealth management startup has received USD 30 Mn from STEADVIEW CAPITAL. KUNAL SHAH’s CRED attracted USD 25 Mn from SEQUOIA. The man with the golden touch, SATYEN KOTHARI‘s CUBE WEALTH, garnered USD 2 Mn from global investors. DANISH AHMED and his team’s HOSPALS raised USD 1.5 Mn from SPIRAL VENTURES and VCATS and VARUN DESHPANDE and his team created NUO receiving huge funding from YCOMBINATOR.
Even existing StartUps that had scaled greater peaks garnered good investments from potential investment banks. To name a few, SWIGGY (USD 1 BN), OYO (USD 900 Mn), BYJU (USD 540 Mn), PAYTM MALL (USD 445 Mn) and ZOMATO (USD 410 Mn) received good funding, as their scaling was awesome feel analysts.
The negative issues were many StartUps shut their doors or turned dormant due to reasons best known to them. Few claim that it could be due to mismanagement, government laws or burnout by competitors. The irony is that sectors like CONSUMER SERVICES, ECOMMERCE and FINTECH that were funded extensively also saw some prominent players close shop. JustBuyLive, Shotang, PortDesk, Zebpay and Babyberry are the top five StartUps that have turned silent inspite of having good initial traction.
Well, all was not gloomy in 2018 Indian StartUp Ecology witnessed some great mergers and acquisition too. WALMART acquiring 77% Stake in FLIPKART by pumping in USD 16 Bn. This was the largest SHOUTOUT in this ecology.
On other hand ZOMATO acquiring TongueStun for leveraging scaling up operations with a whopping USD 18 Mn. Not to be left behind, Ecom giant AMAZON acquires TAPZO, a platform that had aggregated premium apps from agnostic sectors. AMAZON coughed up USD 40 Mn to make this happen. Another interesting acquisition in 2018 was US based HR entity MERCER buying virtual assessment company METTL for approximately USD 35 Mn. Trying to scale up operations FOODPANDA struck gold when it took over HOLACHEF, an aggregator that connected chefs with foodies. FOODPANDA made this possible through a USD 10 Mn deal, approximately.
Well now for the major controversies in 2018, we had our own mind blowing issues that raised many eyebrows. And of course the OSCARS goes to…. date leakage issues at PAYTM. And adding fuel to fire the funder was threatened for a ransom too.
The sudden exiting of the former FLIPKART founders, BANSALs from the newly formed company pained many. However ANGEL TAX took the centre stage, the rumour is that IT sleuths issuing notices to many STARTUPS that were earlier exempted.
A firm announcement is expected from the central government on this impending issue, a bone of contention expressed by investors and investees, univocally.
The forecast for 2019 seems to be quite encouraging with emerging markets for engineering innovative capital goods that fall under deep tech and machine learning. Automation will also play a vital role in the form of AI, AR and IoT to cater emerging trends.
On the whole a robust ecology is envisioned for the coming year…..keep watching this space for more updates…..HAPPY NEW YEAR 2019…..
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