Is there a scary twist ahead in the Indian start-up story?
Cars24 laid off 600 workers, just days after Vedantu fired 424 employees. Y Combinator has asked founders of its portfolio firms to prep for the worst. Is there a twist ahead in the start-up story? Investors, founders and CEOs have started sounding bugle on an impending funding crisis for start-ups and are taking a sombre tone on the medium-term outlook of the ecosystem. After raising a record $35 billion in 2021, Indian start-ups are staring at falling valuations and a slowdown in funding as investor sentiment turns negative after more than a decade of bull-run that saw India mint a 100 unicorns. This has prompted several start-ups lay off employees as focus turns towards profitability and cash conservation to increase runway. The latest to do so are SoftBank-backed pre-owned e-commerce platform Cars24 and ed-tech start-up Vedantu, which had turned unicorns in the last two years. Cars24 reportedly laid-off 600 staff, making up 6% of the company’s total employee strength wher...