The coming Unicorn meltdown
This is a piece I wanted to write 2 years ago, when startup funding in India was at its peak and was to reflect my contrary views when talking to people in the startup ecosystem. The current negative news around Byju’s and other Unicorns will make this article dated. While I cannot say `I told you so’, I believe some of the following points have not been adequately covered in the media and are relevant to understand what might happen with Indian startups. I believe we’re seeing the start of an implosion in the Indian Unicorn world. This has the potential of affecting companies in the real world, rather than only the parallel universe the Unicorns seem to exist in. A google search will have innumerable articles on a `funding winter’, fewer startups being registered and funded etc. However, there are some more sobering statistics which are not reported – instead there is an obsession with valuation. There are approx. 90,000 registered startups in India. About half are active i...