India’s unicorn decade: Hype, reality and the misplaced China equation

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Synopsis
Flipkart became a unicorn in 2012. That unleashed billions of dollars of venture capital into a plethora of consumer internet startups in the next ten years. Beneath the excitement of the mushrooming of unicorns, the India gold quest has turned out to be a long, hard, and uncertain voyage for the global private capital.

The jubilation over India churning out 100 unicorns has given way to anxiety over a bitter funding winter. The capital crunch, down rounds, and likely blow-ups are in everyone’s mind. As the Indian startup community battles mood swings — the fear of an aggravating liquidity crisis on one hand and the pride of the ecosystem coming of age on the other — 2022 quietly marked the decade of a significant event. Uncelebrated, and worse, unremembered,

( Originally published on Nov 04, 2022 )