Why These 7 Startups Took Off Well But Fell Flat in 2016? The ecstatic atmosphere of startup ecosystem has observed a U-turn after the sudden breakdown of some well-funded ventures in 2016.
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The great amount of optimism and enthusiasm for startups has spurred every Indian to work out on their out-of-the-box ideas and build a startup. Gradually, by the end of 2016, the ecstatic atmosphere of startup ecosystem has observed a U-turn after the sudden breakdown of some well-funded companies that were expected to reach at pinnacle in years to come.
The trend of startpreneurs has slightly fallen down this year with the demise of several niche ventures. As every big business grows with 'a big idea' in market if executed rightly, there are many startups which though got started with a niche idea, but fell down in execution and management of operations.
Ease in government policies, rising number of home-grown incubators, and the rapidly increasing investors from all over the world, have powered the Indian startup ecosystem. But the recent abatement in it is alarming the aspiring and existing startups to run their operations effectively and efficiently.
By the end of 2016, let's take a look and recall those startups which received a thud and are yet to get back on the competent ground.
- Blagskart, Jewelskart, Watchkart
These three niche brands were launched by Valio Technologies, along with Lenskart, an eyewear online marketplace. The three of the ventures did not able to catch eyeballs on e-commerce platform. Thereby, the founders of company decided to discontinue the three of the verticals, and focussed on Lenkart in market.
- Opinio
Delhi-based hyperlocal logistics startup, Opinio, temporarily shut down its operations from all the 10 cities in October 2016. Though, in 2015, the startup raised its Pre-series A funding from logistics companies- Accel Partners and Sands Capital. But the company did not able to cope up with the market saturation and temporarily shut down operations for 6 months.
- FranklyMe
The micro-blogging website, Frankly.Me was one of the kind of social networking platform which was based on video-audio communication. Frankly.me laid down the 40% of its employees in 2015. Currently, the company has shutdown all its operations and the reason is still unknown to everyone.
- Bite Club
Gurugram-based foodtech startup was founded in 2014 by Prateek Agarwal, Sidharth Sharma and Aushim Krishan. The startup at first raised its pre-series A funding within eight months with an undisclosed amount from GrowX Venture Management, later in 2015 bthey secured $5k seedfunding from Powai Lake Ventures, and also a few angel investors. The founders stopped company's operations, this year July. As per the sources, the founders of company has said that Bite Club is on a temporary halt.
- Fashionara
The Bangalore-based startup, Fashionara was launched in 2012 by former Reliance Trends CEO, Arun Sirdeskhmukh and former Chief Technology Officer of Times Internet Ltd. Darpan Munjal. The startup cut off its operations in May 2016. The company rose over $4 mn in its pre-series A funding in 2014. The company started disappearing from social media after a few months when in January the co-founder, Darpan Munjal stepped down from Fashionara. The company started disappearing from social media as there were reportedly no updates on its social media pages in April and May.
- Intelligent Interfaces
Intelligent Interfaces, co-founded by Rahul Yadav, the former CEO of Housing.com shut down his new startup operations in May 2016. Rahul stunned everyone announcing the decision of not serving the operations of Intelligent Interface through his Facebook post. The startup was based on the intelligent data aggregation and visualization solutions with intent to make Indian governance highly efficient. The company fell down in market due to the flawed business model. There are no official updates of getting "II' back on ground yet.
- iTiffin
Again, the Bangalore-based online meal provider, iTiffin shut down its operations on in March, this year. The startup was founded by Ryan Fernando and Tapan Kumar Das in 2013. Though, the startup had a USP of providing a defined calorie ordered meal. But it could not survive even after raising $1mn funding from different investors all over the world.
