Indian Startups

Annual Report 2022

BY
 03 04 05 07 19
Overview Key highlights Funding trend Top deals in Unicorns chasing
H1 and H2 profitability

22 24 25 27 28
Established unicorns Merger & ESOP buyback Comparison City and segment
still bleed money Acquisitions 2022 Vs 2021 wise deals

30 32 34
Startup fund launch Layoffs and Trend and
shutdowns Conclusion

Source : Fintrackr
 OVERVIEW

Even as the year 2022 included what many have

called a funding winter for startups, it still ended on
an optimistic note as Indian tech companies
managed to raise over $25 billion in 12 months. While
this was a significant drop from the blockbuster
funding of $38 billion in 2021 when the ecosystem
broke all records in terms of fundraising and minting
unicorns, it’s still more than two times the $11.3 billion
funding during 2020.

Source : Fintrackr
 KEY HIGHLIGHTS
$21 Bn
Amount raised

According to data compiled by Fintrackr, 1,327 startups

Growth/Late stage
raised $25.2 billion across 1,556 deals. This includes $21
billion by 330 growth stage startups and $4.2 billion by 1012
early stage startups. The funding details of 214 startups,
mainly in the early stage, remained undisclosed.
330
Deals

Total deals Total funding raised

1,556 $25.2 Bn $4.2 Bn
Amount raised

Unicorns M&A
24 204 Early stage

Fund launches Undisclosed deals

1,012
105 214 Deals

Y-o-Y decline in funding Top hub in fundraising

50% Bengaluru & Delhi-NCR

Source : Fintrackr
 FUNDING TREND $38 Bn

Year-on-Year Trend
$25.2 Bn

The overall funding declined by more than 30% in

2022 when compared to 2021. In the past five years, $13.41 Bn
the Indian startup ecosystem has raked in around $100
$10.8 Bn
billion in venture capital funding. The year-on-year
chart reflects the volume and value of deals since 2018.

$11.37 Bn

2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Source : Fintrackr, Venture Intelligence

 Month-on-Month Trend

The year 2022 kicked off with startups raising $4.57 billion in the very first
month but as months progressed, the pace lowered and the first quarter
$4.57 Bn
ended at $12 billion. The second quarter saw a further dip at nearly
$8 billion in funding with May being the month with the lowest amount.
During the second half of 2022, the monthly average stood at around
$3.9 Bn
$1 billion, a steep fall against more than $3 billion per month during the
first half. This was the actual period when startups saw fewer big rounds
while many deals reportedly got delayed due to the economic downturn.

$3.56 Bn $2.8 Bn
$2.6 Bn

$1.7 Bn $1.2 Bn
$1 Bn $1.1 Bn $1.1 Bn

$963 Mn
$870 Mn

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Source : Fintrackr
 GROWTH STAGE VS EARLY STAGE
Top 25 Growth stage deals in H1, 2022

To understand the deal flow during the first half or H1 of 2022, Entrackr has prepared a list of top 25 deals across early and growth stages. During H1,
DailyHunt’s parent company VerSe Innovation scooped up a whopping $805 million, which turned out to be the largest round of 2022. Edtech firm
Byju’s also announced an $800 million round whereas foodtech major Swiggy raised $700 million to enter the decacorn club in January.

Amount
Startup Segment Raised (In $Mn) Lead Investor/s Valuation

Vernacular
Verse Innovation 805 CPPIB $5 Bn
News Aggregator

Byju’s Edtech 800 Byju Raveendran $22 Bn

Swiggy Foodtech 700 Invesco $10.7 Bn

Polygon Blockchain 450 Sequoia Capital India -

Uniphore SaaS 400 NEA $2.5 Bn

Valuation [as on date of funding]

Source : Fintrackr
 Amount
Startup Segment Raised (In $Mn) Lead Investor/s Valuation

Fractal AI 360 TPG Capital Asia $1 Bn

Eruditus Edtech 350 CPPIB -

Delhivery E-commerce 304 Tiger Global, Bay Capital, Steadview, GIC -

ElasticRun Kirana commerce 300 SoftBank $1.4 Bn

Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth and

XpressBees E-commerce 300 $1.2 Bn
ChrysCapital
Uncorrelated Ventures, Fasanara Capital
StashFin Fintech 270 $700-$800 Mn
and Abstract Ventures
Vernacular Social
ShareChat 255 Google, Times Group and Temasek $5 Bn
Media

Udaan B2B E-commerce 250 VBG Realty LLP $3 Bn

B2B
Moglix 250 Tiger Global and Alpha Wave Global $2.6 Bn
Industrial Goods
Subscription
Chargebee 250 Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital $3.5 Bn
Management

Dunzo Logistics 240 Reliance Retail Ventures Limited $775 Mn

Tekne Private Ventures, Alpine
Ola Electric EV 200 $5 Bn
Opportunity Fund, Edelweiss

Oxyzo Fintech 200 Alpha Wave and Tiger Global $1.4 Bn

Valuation [as on date of funding]

Source : Fintrackr
 Amount
Startup Segment Raised (In $Mn) Lead Investor/s Valuation

Zepto Grocery delivery 200 Y Combinator Continuity and Kaiser $900 Mn

Permanente

Livspace Interior and Renovation 180 KKR & Co. $1 Bn

Rapido Bike Taxi 180 Swiggy $800 Mn

DealShare Social Commerce 165 Tiger Global $1.62 Bn

LeadSquared SaaS 153 WestBridge Capital $1 Bn

Pine Labs Merchant Commerce 150 Alpha Wave $5 Bn

Licious D2C Meat 150 Amansa Capital -

Valuation [as on date of funding]

Blockchain startup Polygon and SaaS startup Uniphore also joined the list of startups that raised larger rounds with $450 million and $400 million
respectively. Importantly, startups in the top 25 growth stage list raised at least $150 million or more in their funding round.

Source : Fintrackr
 Top 25 Early stage deals in H1, 2022

Cricket NFT platform Rario raised $120 million in one of the largest Series A funding rounds in the Indian startup ecosystem. E-commerce roll up
company GOAT Brand Labs, game streaming app Loco, B2B manufacturing Groyyo and B2B digital marketplace Solv also raised over $40 million
and became top fundraisers amongst early stage startups.

Amount
Startup Segment Raised (In $Mn) Lead Investor/s Valuation

Rario NFT 120 Dream Capital -

Winter Capital, 9Unicorns, Venture

GOAT Brand Labs E-commerce rollup 50 -
Catalysts, Vivriti Capital and Oxyzo

Loco Game streaming 42 Hashed -

Groyyo B2B manufacturing 40 Tiger Global -

B2B digital
Solv 40 SBI Holdings -
marketplace
Altigreen EV 39.8 Sixth Sense Ventures -

Wiz Freight Supply chain 36 Tiger Global -

Valuation [as on date of funding]

Source : Fintrackr
 Amount
Startup Segment Raised (In $Mn) Lead Investor/s Valuation

Jar Fintech 32 Tiger Global -

BITKRAFT Ventures, General Catalyst,

StockGro Fintech 32 -
and Itai Tsiddon

Recur Club Fintech 30 InfoEdge and Village Global -

JAM Fund, Winklevoss Capital, Rapyd

Volopay Fintech 29 -
Ventures, and Accial Capital

EVage EV 28 RedBlue Capital -

Statiq EV 25.7 Shell Ventures -

Battery Smart EV 25 Tiger Global -

BluSmart EV 25 BP Ventures and Green Frontier Capital -

Pixxel Spacetech 25 Radical Ventures -

Rupifi Fintech 25 Bessemer Venture and Tiger Global -

Lightbox, March Gaming, and

Rooter Esports 25 -
Duane Park Ventures

Valuation [as on date of funding]

Source : Fintrackr
 Amount
Startup Segment Raised (In $Mn) Lead Investor/s Valuation

Filo Edtech 23 Anthos Capital -

Smiles.ai Healthtech 23 Alpha Wave -

B2B waste
Recykal 22 Morgan Stanley -
management
Raise Financial Fintech 22 BEENEXT and Mirae Asset Venture -

100ms Live video 20 Alpha Wave -

Kuhoo Fintech 20 WestBridge Capital -

Ambulance Healthquad, Kalaari Capital,
StanPlus 20 -
aggregator and HealthX Singapore

Source : Fintrackr
 Top 25 Growth stage deals in H2, 2022

During the second half or H2 of 2022, there were fewer larger deals. However, edtech companies Byju’s and upGrad, and e-grocer Bigbasket managed
to raise over $200 million in their funding round. Unlike the first half, only 11 startups (out of top 25) raised more than $100 million in a single round.

Amount
Startup Segment Raised (In $Mn) Lead Investor/s Valuation

Byju’s Edtech 286.5 Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) $22 Bn

ETS Global, Bodhi Tree, Singapore's

upGrad Edtech 210 $2.25 Bn
Kaizen Management Advisor

Bigbasket E-grocery 200 Tata Digital -

Tredence AI 175 Advent International -

Icertis SaaS 150 Silicon Valley Bank -

HealthKart D2C brand 135 Temasek $390 Mn

Udaan E-commerce 120 Undisclosed -

Valuation [as on date of funding]

Source : Fintrackr
 Amount
Startup Segment Raised (In $Mn) Lead Investor/s Valuation

TPG’s The Rise Fund and Norwest

EarlySalary Fintech 110 Venture Partners $300 Mn

Amagi SaaS 110 General Atlantic $1.45 Bn

CleverTap SaaS 105 CDPQ $775 Mn

OneCard Fintech 100 Temasek (via MacRitchie Investments) $1.3 Bn

LifeWell (Mfine + Lifecell) Healthtech 80 OrbiMed -

Contentstack SaaS 80 Georgian and Insight Partners -

Premji Invest, Motilal Oswal Alternates,

KreditBee Fintech 80 -
TPG-backed NewQuest Capital Partners

Money View Fintech 75 Apis Partners $900 Mn

Bira91 D2C brand 70 Japan's Kirin Holdings -

Cover Genius Fintech 70 Dawn Capital -

Clove Dental Dental chain 67 Investcorp -

Valuation [as on date of funding]

Source : Fintrackr
 Amount
Startup Segment Raised (In $Mn) Lead Investor/s Valuation

Product
Servify management 65 Singularity Growth Opportunity Fund -

Euler Motors EV 60 GIC Singapore -

boAt D2C brand 60 Warburg Pincus and Malabar Investments. -

Bessemer Venture Partners and the Susquehanna

Lentra Fintech 60 $400 Mn
International Group (SIG) Venture Capital.

DeHaat Agritech 60 Temasek and Sofina Ventures -

MedGenome Healthtech 50 Novo Holdings -

Jai Kisan Agritech 50 Blume Ventures $180-$190 Mn

Valuation [as on date of funding]

Notably, very few startups managed to raise more than two financing rounds in 2o22. Byju’s, Money View, among others are in this list.

Source : Fintrackr
 Top 25 Early stage deals in H2, 2022

Blockchain startup 5ire announced its $100 million Series A round at a valuation of more than $1 billion and entered the club of unicorns. According
to the startup, it had previously raised $21 million at a valuation of $110 million. There were other big deals (in the range of $20-57 million) in the early
stage as well such as Keka, PriceLabs, Hygenco, Uolo, Dezerv, Mojocare, GlobalFair and Sitara. Others, however, were relatively low in cheque size.

Amount
Startup Segment Raised (In $Mn) Lead Investor/s Valuation

5ire Blockchain 100 UK-based conglomerate SRAM & MRAM $1.5 Bn

Keka HRtech 57 WestBridge Capital -

PriceLabs SaaS 30 Summit Partners -

Hygenco Green hydrogen 25 SBICAP Ventures managed Neev II Fund -

Uolo Edtech 22.5 Winter Capital -

Dezerv Fintech 21 Accel Partners $100 Mn

Mojocare Healthtech 20.6 B Capital $70-75 Mn

Valuation [as on date of funding]

Source : Fintrackr
 Amount
Startup Segment Raised (In $Mn) Lead Investor/s Valuation

GlobalFair Wholeseller 20 Lightspeed -

Sitara Fintech 20 Europe-based NMI and WWB Asset Management -

Jane Street, Struck Crypto,

Shardeum Blockchain 18.2 The Spartan Group, Big Brain Holdings $200 Mn

Juno Fintech 18 ParaFi Capital -

Accel, Quona Capital, Jump Capital,

Pillow Crypto 18 -
and Elevation Capital

Aquaconnect Aquatech 15 Lok Capital -

Even Healthtech 15 Alpha Wave and Lightrock -

Sukoon Healthtech 15 Lightrock India -

Assiduus Global E-commerce 15 Pulsar Capital -

Elevation Capital, Jungle Ventures,

Drivetrain AI Fintech 15 and Venture Highway -

Jodo Fintech 15 Tiger Global $90 Mn

Valuation [as on date of funding]

Source : Fintrackr
 Amount
Startup Segment Raised (In $Mn) Lead Investor/s Valuation

Phyllo SaaS 15 RTP Global -

3one4Capital, Mirae Assets, Verlinvest,

Eka Care Healthtech 15 Aditya Birla Ventures, Binny Bansal, Rohit MA -

Prismforce SaaS 13.6 Sequoia Capital India -

EndureAir Systems Drone 13.5 Jalaj Dani -

Exponent Energy EV 13 Lightspeed -

Uniqus Consultancy 12.5 Nexus Venture Partners -

IAN, NB Ventures, Go-Ventures, Lets Venture,

BigSpoon Foodtech 12.5 Grip Invest, and Anicut Capital -

Valuation [as on date of funding]

Source : Fintrackr
 UNICORNS CHASING PROFITABILITY
The number of startups that attained unicorn status declined sharply to 24 in 2022 against the 43 in 2021 and 11 in 2020.
During the first quarter (Q1), 15 startups entered the unicorn club, while Q2 and Q3 saw four and five, respectively.

Notably, Indian startups failed to mint a unicorn in the last quarter.

Startup Segment Month Profit/Loss (FY22)

Mamaearth D2C brands January J 14.4 Cr

Fractal Analytics AI solutions January J -148 Cr

LEAD Edtech January J -397 Cr

Darwinbox HR tech January -

DealShare Social commerce February J -431 Cr

ElasticRun Kirana commerce February J -373 Cr

Livespace Interior design February -

Source : Fintrackr
 Startup Segment Month Profit/Loss (FY22)

XpressBees Logistics February J -27 Cr

Uniphore Conversational Automation February -

Hasura* GraphQL developer February J -0.01 Cr

Commerce IQ* E-Commerce SaaS March J 6.72 Cr

Yubi (CredAvenue) Fintech March J -55 Cr

Amagi* SaaS March -

Oxyzo Fintech March J 69 Cr

Games24x7* Gaming March J -282 Cr

Open Fintech May J -167.7 Cr

PhysicsWallah Edtech June J 98 Cr

Purplle Beauty Products Marketplace June J -203 Cr

LeadSquared SaaS June J -62 Cr

*Profitable in FY21 : Amagi (K 20.7 Cr) *Standalone numbers (Based in US/UK)

Source : Fintrackr
 Startup Segment Month Profit/Loss (FY22)

OneCard Fintech July J -182 Cr

5ire* Blockchain July J -0.003 Cr

Shiprocket* Logistics August J -93 Cr

1MG Medtech September J -526 Cr

Molbio* Healthtech September -

*Profitable in FY21 : Molbio (K 472.7 Cr) *Standalone numbers (Based in US/UK)

As per Fintrackr’s data, only four unicorns were profitable in the last financial year or FY22. Of the 24 unicorns of 2022, 14 were in losses, according to
their annual financial statements. Edtech platform PhysicsWallah was on top in terms of profits with Rs 98 crore. Fintech platform Oxyzo, e-commerce
SaaS company Commerce IQ, and MamaEarth, which recently filed its IPO papers, also posted profits in FY22. HR tech platform Darwinbox, interior
design company Livspace, SaaS company Amagi, online beauty marketplace Purplle, healthtech platform Molbio, and e-commerce SaaS platform
CommerceIQ did not file their FY22 numbers. It’s worth noting that Amagi, Molbio, Shiprocket and Games24X7 were profitable in FY21.

Source : Fintrackr
 ESTABLISHED UNICORNS STILL BLEED MONEY
In May 2022, India saw its 100th startup unicorn. An Entrackr report had also highlighted the profitability status
of these unicorns as of FY21. Even in FY22, the majority of established unicorns continued to bleed heavily.

Fintrackr has prepared a list of 30 unicorns (the ones that achieved this status in 2021 or earlier) to analyse their
financial health. Of the 30, only two unicorns including Infra.Market and OfBusiness were profitable in FY22. A couple
of companies such as Zetwerk and Moglix were close to breaking even while Lenskart slipped into losses.

J 5,705 Cr Swiggy J -3,629 Cr J 5,729 Cr PharmEasy J -2,731 Cr

J 347 Cr ShareChat J -2,988 Cr J 351 Cr Groww J -239 Cr

J 63.9 Cr Apna J -112.5 Cr J 19.21 Cr Hike J -118.7 Cr

J 2,394 Cr Moglix J -164 Cr J 859 Cr Rebel Foods J -564 Cr

J 833 Cr Blackbuck J -285 Cr J 6,236 Cr Infra.Market J 186 Cr

Operating Revenue (FY22) Profit (FY22) Loss (FY22) Former unicorns

Source : Fintrackr
 J 9,900 Cr Udaan J -3,030 Cr J 526 Cr MobiKwik J -128 Cr

J 497 Cr MPL J -1,122 Cr J 4,781 Cr Oyo J -1,940 Cr

J 1,646 Cr PhonePe J -2,014 Cr J 437.6 Cr Urban Company J -514 Cr

J 682.6 Cr Licious J -855 Cr J 8,805 Cr BigBasket J -990.7 Cr

J 4,961 Cr Zetwerk J -60 Cr J 393 Cr CRED J -1,279 Cr

J 965 Cr Dailyhunt J -2,563 Cr J 7,270 Cr OfBusiness J 201 Cr

J 679 Cr UpGrad J -627 Cr J 719 Cr Unacademy J -2,848 Cr

J 216 Cr Cult.fit J -690 Cr J 3,232 Cr Meesho J -3,248 Cr

J 1,503 Cr Lenskart J -102 Cr J 186 Cr Mensa Brands J -96.62 Cr

J 282 Cr Paytm Mall J -142 Cr J 1,597 Cr CarDekho J -246 Cr

Operating Revenue (FY22) Profit (FY22) Loss (FY22) Former unicorns Compiled data of BigBasket's
B2B and B2C arms

Source : Fintrackr
 MERGERS AND Top 10 Acquisitions According to Deal Size in 2022

ACQUISITIONS
$568 Mn $200 Mn $200 Mn $132 Mn $125 Mn
The year 2021 saw more than
250 mergers and acquisitions,
but in 2022 there were 204 such
deals. During the funding winter, Zomato acquired Shiprocket acquired Razorpay acquired Reliance Retail Reliance Retail
industry experts expected more Blinkit majority stake in Pickrr Ezetap acquired majority stake acquired 89% stake
mergers and acquisitions deals in Addverb in Clovia
Technologies
but that didn’t happen at the same
pace. Nevertheless, a bunch of
startups made headlines like the
acquisition of Blinkit by Zomato in
a $568 million deal. The notable
deals in the top 10 includes the $100 Mn $100 Mn $80 Mn $70 Mn $60 Mn
acquisition of Pickrr by Shiprocket,
Ezetap by Razorpay, Knowlarity
by Gupshup, Karza Technologies
by Perfios, Setu by Pine Labs, Indus Gupshup acquired Netcore Cloud Perfios acquired Pine Labs PhonePe acquired
Knowlarity acquired majority Karza Technologies acquired Setu majority stake in
OS by PhonePe.
stake in Unbxd Indus OS

Source : Fintrackr
 ESOP BUYBACK
Top 10 ESOP Buybacks in 2022

Razorpay NoBroker
(Proptech)
(Fintech)

Swiggy $75 Mn $4.2 Mn Porter

The impact of funding winter (Foodtech) (Logistics)
can be traced through the
decline in ESOP buybacks by $23 Mn $5 Mn
startups across stages in the
latter half of 2022. As per data
compiled by Fintrackr, around
25 startups announced ESOP
Pine Labs
(Fintech)
$13.5 Mn $8.6 Mn Slice
(Fintech)
buybacks worth $200 million
during the last year, a fall from
$440 million worth ESOP
buybacks in 2021. In 2020, the $13.5 Mn $10 Mn
value of ESOP buyback stood Ninjacart Cars24
at $50 million. (Agritech) (Second-hand
$12.3 Mn $10 Mn car selling)

TheMathCompany Rebel Foods

(Edtech) (Cloud Kitchen)

Source : Fintrackr
 Fintech unicorn Razorpay topped the list and became the biggest wealth creator for its employees with a $75 million worth ESOP liquidation program.
Foodtech company Swiggy also announced a $23 million worth ESOP liquidation program after attaining decacorn status. Ninjacart, Pine Labs,
Rebel Foods, Cars24, Slice, NoBroker and Porter also joined the list. Most unicorns were conspicuous by their absence in the list.

As per media reports, Walmart-owned e-commerce major Flipkart is going to award a $700 million one-time cash payout to holders of employee
stock options, including those from Phonepe. This could be the biggest buyback for the startup ecosystem in India.

Source : Fintrackr
 COMPARISON 2022 VS 2021
Entrackr has prepared a comparison chart for a better understanding
of decline in fund inflow, startup unicorns, ESOP buyback, startup IPO
and larger funding rounds in 2022 against 2021.

2022 Amount raised Amount raised

2021
1,556 $25.2 Bn 1,625 $38 Bn
Total deals Total funding $21.6 Bn $34.3 Bn Total deals Total funding

Growth/Late stage Growth/Late stage

330 deals 380 deals
24 204 43 250
Unicorns M&A Unicorns M&A

$200 Mn 02 Amount raised Amount raised

$440 Mn 11
ESOP buybacks Startup IPO
$4.4 Bn $3.68 Bn ESOP buybacks Startup IPO

Early stage Early stage

64 1,230+ deals 1,245 deals 105
$100 Mn+ rounds $100 Mn+ rounds

Source : Fintrackr
 CITY AND Top 10 City-wise Number of Deals in Startups in 2022

SEGMENT-WISE 389 Delhi-NCR

DEALS
Indore

9
10 Jaipur

Ahmedabad

26
Bengaluru, once again became hub of startups as
652 startups from the city raked in nearly $13 billion
funding during 2022. This is 50% of the total funding
during the last year. Delhi-NCR based startups were
the next with 389 deals amounting to $5.3 billion. 235 10
Mumbai, Chennai and Pune made it to the top 5 list,
which is similar to that of the top 5 list from 2021. Mumbai Kolkata

Pune 51 49 Hyderabad

65
Bengaluru
652 Chennai

Source : Fintrackr
 Top 5 Segment-wise Number of Deals in Startups in 2022

230 220
150
103 98

Fintech E-Commerce SaaS Healthtech Edtech

Segment wise, fintech remained on top with 230 startups raising over $4 billion. E-commerce, SaaS, healthtech and edtech startups were
next on the list. While healthtech climbed to fourth position in 2022 from fifth position in 2022, edtech slipped to fifth from second position
during the period.

Source : Fintrackr
 INDIA-FOCUSED STARTUP FUND LAUNCH
Despite the funding slowdown, venture capital, private equity and debt firms continued to make fund announcements. As per Fintrackr’s data,
more than 100 India focused investment firms announced their new fundraise in 2022. It was a significant increase from 75 such funds in 2021.
Entrackr has prepared the top 25 India focused funds (according to their fund size) announced in 2022.

Top 25 Fund Launches in 2022

Name of VC Fund Size (In $Mn) Month

Sequoia Capital 2000 June

Elevation Capital 670 April

Accel 650 March

Owl Ventures 650 January

Jungle Ventures 600 May

Bain Capital Ventures 560 March

Bertelsmann India 500 June

Source : Fintrackr
 Name of VC Fund Size (In $Mn) Month

Lightspeed India Partners 500 April

SphitiCap 500 October

Matrix Partner India 450 June

Jashvik Capital 350 October

Avataar Venture 350 October

Quona Capital 332 November

Ganesha (MUFG Bank) 300 March

Blume Ventures 250 December

Eight Roads Ventures 250 May

Panthera Growth Partners 250 June

B Capital 250 July

Fundamentum 227 August

Fireside Ventures 225 October

IvyCap 214 February

Elev8 200 September

Stride Ventures 200 August

GEF Capital Partners (GEF) 200 March

Trifecta Capital 200 February

Source : Fintrackr
 LAYOFFS AND SHUTDOWN Layoffs in 2022

Startup Impacted Employees

Amid slowdown in funding, Indian startups saw mass layoffs, mostly during the second Lido Learning 1200
half of the year. Data compiled by Fintrackr shows that more than 20,000 employees
OkCredit 40-45
were laid off in 2022. This includes full time employees and contract employees at
companies such as Ola, and Blinkit. While most of the startups fired employees due to Furlenco 180
funding crunch, market condition, cost cutting measures and a way to increase their Shopee India 350
runway, a clutch of them also cited those layoffs as part of their performance appraisal Trell 300
process. Byju’s group including WhiteHat Jr and Toppr, Unacademy, Vedantu, and
Unacademy (Including PrepLadder) 1225
Frontrow saw mass firings while around half a dozen startups such as Lido, Udayy,
Crejo.fun, and Qin1 shut their operations permanently. Meesho 450
Cars24 600
A caveat: The number of employees laid off during mFine 500-600
2022 could be higher since several startups may have MPL 100
not been reported and there were undisclosed
Yaari 150
number of firings in some companies.
Vedantu 1100
FrontRow 275-300
Aqgromalin 80
Breathe Well-being 50
CityMall 190

Shutdown

Source : Fintrackr, Media Reports

Startup Impacted Employees Startup Impacted Employees Startup Impacted Employees

Coinbase 25-30 BlueStacks 60 WazirX 50-70

Crejo.Fun 170 Bright Money 100 Brainly 25
Daloopa 40-50 Fraazo 150 Chargebee 140
Eruditus 40 Hubilo 45-50 HighRadius 25
FarEye 250 CarDekho 200 Hirect 200
Lummo 50-60 DeHaat Unknown Plum Insurance 36
Nova Benefits 80 Koo 40 Practically 190
Oye Rickshaw 40 LEAD 90 Teachmint 45
SuperLearn 100% ShopX 200 VerSe Innovation (DailyHunt) 150
Udayy 100 Blinkit 1600 Zomato 100
Vauld 30% Clear (Cleartax) 190 Freshworks 90
Yojak 140 Dukaan 23 HealthifyMe 150
Byju's Group (Including WhiteHat Jr ~4000 Jeet11 (ShareChat) 100
and Toppr)
Innovavver 90
PharmEasy 40+ Ola 2300 OYO 600
Udaan 530 GoNuts 100% PayU 150
Rupeek 250-300 Qin1 100% Invact Metaversity 20
Bikayi Unknown Synapsica 30 Yellow Class 19

Shutdown Fulltime+Contractual Contractual

As previously reported by Entrackr, edtech was among the worst hit segments among all. As per numbers available through various sources and media
reports, edtech accounted for nearly 50% of the total firings, which is concerning for a segment which was on top in terms of funding in 2021. For context,
edtech startups scooped up $5.8 billion in 2021 which further fell to $2.3 billion in 2022. Clearly, plans of most edtechs for the post covid opening up did
not survive contact with the real world.

Source : Fintrackr, Media Reports

 TRENDS AND CONCLUSION

Early Stage deals on par with 2021

Despite low funding, early stage deals in 2022 were on par with 2021 numbers. As per Fintrackr’s data, more than 1230 early stage startups announced
their funding in 2022 against 1245 in 2021. This could be attributed to early stage focused funds and angel investors who continued to pour in capital.
For context, IAN Group invested in 52 seed and early-age startups in 2022 whereas Bharat Founders Fund said that it backed 45 startups in the last
year. Angel investors such as Kunal Shah, Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal, Aman Gupta and Karthik Bhat topped the list in early stage investments, according
to a report by Venture Intelligence. While the deal count was reduced, it did not impact the overall numbers.

Unicorns still chasing profitability

Out of 24, only three unicorns reported profits in FY22. A couple of companies such as Amagi and Molbio may join the list. It means only 25% of unicorns
will be profitable. A clutch of startups such as Zepto, Turtlemint, Rapido and Money View could have joined the unicorn club. However, they chose to
remain soonicorns with valuation in the range of $900-950 million.

Source : Fintrackr
 Funding boom for Agritech and EV

Agritech and EV startups managed to raise more funds than in previous years. However, there were no unicorns from both segments in 2022.

Tiger and SoftBank trim investment

After emerging as the unicorn maker in 2021, Tiger Global took a backseat in large investments in India in the first half of 2022. The trend continued till
the end of the calendar year. As per reports, the firm was planning to slow its investment for the next two quarters (2022). Softbank also said that it will
stay away from major investments in India.

Debt funding in growth stage

The funding winter forced growth stage startups to go for debt, especially during the second half of 2022. Data compiled by Fintrackr showed that
around 22 growth stage startups picked up debt-only rounds in 2022. Out of these, 18 debt funding was recorded during H2, 2022.

Source : Fintrackr
 Web 3 and Crypto

Startup community was going gung ho over Web3 and crypto in the initial phase of 2022. However, the excitement did not continue as they failed
to raise capitals as expected. Also, many crypto and web3 startups shifted their base to Dubai and other countries over the course of time due to
regulatory hurdles in India. Meanwhile, the central government also indicated that the RBI would like to ban private cryptocurrencies in India and it
would wait for the global regulatory environment of crypto to evolve further before proceeding with newer regulations.

Decline in startup IPO

As per data, 11 Indian startups such as Paytm, Zomato, EaseMyTrip, Nazara, CarTrade, Freshworks, Nykaa, Fino, MapMyIndia, Policybazaar, and
RateGain listed on the bourses in 2021. However, it declined to merely two in 2022 as Delhivery and Tracxn managed to go IPO in the last calendar
year. Many companies have stalled or delayed their IPO plan even after filing their DRHP. The list includes Droom, OYO, boAt, Snapdeal, Mobikwik,
PharmEasy, and Digit Insurance. D2C beauty brand MamaEarth became the latest to file IPO papers with SEBI.

Source : Fintrackr
 Fair rating points for startups

According to a research report by Fairwork India Ratings 2022, home service marketplace Urban Company has topped the list of fair work ratings.
The research platform gives points on the basis of fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation. The report further
highlighted that Ola, Uber, Dunzo, PharmEasy, and Amazon Flex did not score any points and were judged poorest in providing working conditions for
gig workers.

Conclusion

2022 has been a tough year, most founders will tell you. From the slow and ongoing burn across crypto, to the travails of the edtech category and the
disasters that have been many of the ‘star’ startup IPOs. On the other hand, some of the most hard hit firms have also been around long enough to
know how to survive the toughest of times, and we will no doubt see many more steps up this year, too. However, a significant turnaround in the
funding environment, when it comes, will be too late for some, and expect to see the much awaited consolidation appear and spread across multiple
categories at some stage. An aspect we have not covered here, founder exits, is also set to continue, as many founders seek a break from the
relentless pressure of running a firm that cannot slow down.

Source : Fintrackr
 REPORT ENDS.

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