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Startups hit as investors get extra cautious
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SME Times News Bureau | 01 Apr, 2020
Amid uncertainty in the business
climate due to the COVID-19 pandemic, young startups in India are
finding it hard to draw the much required funding even as investors
become extra cautious, industry insiders said on Wednesday.
What is even more worrying is that nobody knows for sure when exactly would the business climate in India return to normal.
"Seed
funding has witnessed decline across categories mostly those into
consumer facing sectors -- travel, tourism, retail, restaurants and
events," Apoorva Rajan Sharma, Co-Founder & President, Venture
Catalysts, an incubator for startups, told IANS.
"These are the
sectors that are likely to be hit the most since consumers are likely to
hold onto their spends for at least 2-3 months now on the back of a
deteriorating global economy that is likely to impact jobs and overall
spends," Sharma said, adding that no one can predict when the situation
is likely to stabilise.
India is currently under a 21-day lockdown till April 14.
Noida-based
Madhvi Sharma who works for a lifestyle startup from home has been
asked to now work for 4 hours from April 1, instead of earlier 8-hour,
5-day shift. Reason: Funding is frozen.
According to
Chandrashekar Kini, Director of Bengaluru-based Relex Healthcare
Services, startups are finding it hard to effectively demonstrate their
business models on play due to the lockdown.
It has also affected
their ability to effectively connect with investors who fund early
stage startups in terms of availability of concerned people to evaluate.
There
is "negative/defensive sentiments among investors oriented towards
early stage start-ups. They will have their own concerns on the status
of their investments where they have parked investible funds given
severe erosion in stock market indicators and the fall out of such
erosion in different areas," Kini told IANS.
At the current early
stages of lockdown, there is a general and broad-based disruption in
the investment processes for startups seeking early-stage funding.
"However,
as the lockdown settles in, investors would have concerns about models
that either did not show resilience in a lockdown situation," he said.
According
to him, a few core sectors with greater relevance and resilience are
starting to receive greater attention -- online retail, healthcare,
health-tech, EdTech, etc.
"Startups in other peripheral sectors related to discretionary spending are likely to find the going slow," he said.
The
general economy is likely to start showing signs of getting back on its
feet in the last quarter of 2020, Kini noted, adding that the broader
investment climate for startups is likely to be more supportive in the
first quarter of calendar year 2021.
However, even during these challenging times, some young startups have managed to impress investors.
"The
current situation is affecting the economic activity of startups, which
is definitely expected to elongate funding cycles of seed stage
companies. However, most early stage VCs we are interacting with
continue to be open to new investments," said Esha Tiwary, General
Manager-India at Entrepreneur First which is a leading UK-based global
talent investor.
"For example, Entrepreneur First India held an
Online Demo Day for our second cohort of startups yesterday, and we
already have over 100 investor office hours set up remotely over the
next few days," Tiwary informed.
The Demo Day unveiled five deep
tech startups using cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial
Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and computer
vision.
The startups include Healium Digital Healthcare, Real Analytics, Recreate AI, Unbox Robotics and QZense.
"All
of our startups are gearing up for the next 2-3 months to be
challenging. We will see a new normal emerging in the next 2-3 months
and budding entrepreneurs, as well as existing startups, can take
advantage of that," Tiwary said.
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