It takes a lot of effort to start something – Conceiving an idea, implementing it, nurturing it as your own child i.e., the whole idea of having a startup, isn’t it? Sadly that’s not it. There are many more things that you need to keep in your head as well as your heart when you start your journey in the startup world. To prove this, we have compiled a list of 40+ startups that shut shop this year.
1. Murmur App
Founded in 2011, this news cum blog app had raised almost one million dollar from investors like Times Internet, LetsVenture, ah! Ventures and angel investors like Aniket Khera, Rahul Bhatia, Rudy Gopalakrishnan.
Sahil Baghla and Ayush Varshney launched Murmur by the name Bluegape to be later renamed in November 2015. The app has now shut down. The reason for shutdown is not clear, however, the company was in talks with Times Internet for an acquisition but things were not that rosy. Bad times!
2. Intelligent Interfaces
If there is something that Rahul Yadav had done right is that he stayed in the news for the right (or wrong, we leave that on you to decide) reasons that gave his new startup a clear cut marketing edge for promotions. Rahul Yadav and Azeem Zainulbhai ‘s startup Intelligent Interfaces shut down right after raising a whooping amount of INR 3.1 Crore from YouWeCan Ventures, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal at a valuation of INR 170 Crore. So what went wrong? Even after 7 months since the launch announcement and about 5 months after the funding announcement, no one knew what the company was doing.
3. Fashionara
Fashionara was an e-commerce portal founded by Arun Sirdeshmukh and Darpan Munjal in the year 2012. It has raised almost $4 Mn from investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners. The startup has been reported to shut shop. Its website has not been working for the last few days and there is not much update on its social media channels. A more concrete evidence? Co-founder Darpan Munjal left the company in January this year and is currently working at Squadhelp.com. The startup did not clarify the reason for shutting down its operations. Sad ending must say.
4. Purple Squirrel
Founded by Aditya Gandhi, this Mumbai based ed-tech start-up was incubated in September 2013 by IIT Bombay. Purple Squirrel aimed at training students by taking them on industrial visits across the country.
In April 2015, it raised an INR 12 Cr in funding from Matrix Partners. Prior to this, it had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Mumbai-based venture capital investor India Quotient. Still the company was left with only INR 3 crores, with a burn rate of INR 1.2 crores per month. This resulted in shutting down of the company eventually.
5. Tooler
Founded in 2015, Tooler – an on-demand laundry startup claimed to complete over 90 orders a day. Its sudden shut down did grab a few eyeballs. Maybe it wasn’t that sudden too- Tooler had been trying to raise funds from a long time but in vain.
Entrepreneurs please take note: You do need a strong business plan and model apart from getting things rolling.
6. FranklyMe
Frankly.me, a Delhi-based video micro blogging platform that raised $600,000 in seed funding from Matrix partners in January last year has shut down and laid off 30 employees from its Delhi office. The company couldn’t raise Series A and recently pivoted to Dubsmash sort of product, but with very little traction.
7. ZuperMeal
Founded in 2015, ZuperMeal Pvt Ltd received a funding of almost $2 million (about Rs13 crore) in seed funding from celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, Ravi Saxena and two unnamed foreign investors in October 2015.
While no concrete news is available from the founders’ side, the development is yet another reminder of the grim situation that the food-tech sector finds itself in with investors not inclined to fund start-ups with high cash burn rate.
8. Townrush
If you ask about bad times, then this is one start-up that has probably seen the worst. Townrush is an urban logistics and on-demand delivery platform that helps in getting local goods delivered in a city within an hour. It connects merchants and customer to local logistic providers in real-time and arrange the complete shipment life-cycle till it reaches its final destination. Townrush shut down its operations as it failed to raise funds. Failing to raise funds, it had to fire 30 people.
9. Trevo
Trevo, a bus aggregation startup based in Delhi, shut shop after operating for barely a month. Trevo was launched in early October by IIT and IIM alumni Mayank Jain, Raghav Jain and Vij. The co-founders said that they are closing operations but didn’t provide any further information. A person familiar with the development said the company was struggling due to lack of funds.
10. GoZoomo
Used car marketplace GoZoomo, that had shown much promise in tackling the problem of mistrust, is shutting down. The founding team of three IITians decided that the unit economics were not adding up, despite several iterations in the business model. So this two-year-old startup that raised US$7 million from top VCs decided to return the money to its investors.
11. AskMe
When you withhold payment of your employees, something bad is sure to happen. Operations finally halted in AskMe due to funding crunch. It blames Astro for the crunch. But things are still not crystal as some claim that the selfish interests of the senior executives were too involved in the downfall of the company.
12. Exclusively.com
After being acquired by Snapdeal an year back, exclusively.com is shutting down. Exclusively.com was founded in 2010 by Sunjay Guleria and Mohini Boparai Guleria. Since the inception, the founders sold and bought the company twice over. Exclusively was being run by Amit Maheshwari, who before joining Exclusively as its chief executive used to head Snapdeal’s fashion category. It is a clear case of cost-cutting from Snapdeal’s side.
13. TaxiForSure
Ola has shut down TaxiForSure (TFS), the value-cabs company it acquired for $200 million last March. Media reports suggest that 1,000 employees have been laid off as a result of the shut down. The business shutdown last month and over 90 percent of the employees were laid off, with three months’ severance package. Ola had acquired TFS as a move to take Uber. However, in the past couple of months Ola has been strategically consolidating the TFS.
Entrepreneurs Note: Look before you Leap.
14. Delivree King
Founded in 2015, Delivree King was a Delhi-based e-commerce focused logistics service provider. It provided on-demand delivery & discount coupons with every parcel. The startup extended its service to 15 cities and after it failed to raise fresh rounds of funding, it became difficult to sustain operations.
15. AutoRaja
Auto-Raja, Chennai-based auto aggregator shut shop due to lack of funds and being unable to catch up with competitors. It provided auto over call, SMS, Whatsapp, or mobile application, to the users. The top officials and the remaining fleet have joined Ola.
16. Zippon
Bangalore-based Zippon, which provided packing and moving service that provided low-cost relocation logistics services. It provided real time prices, online price comparison, pre-screened logistic solution providers, real time tracking, transit insurance and affordable prices. The startup shut shop due to its inability to raise fresh round of funding. The co-founders have reportedly moved on to new roles.
17. ITiffin
After raising seed funding of $1 Mn from investors including Robin Uthappa, ITiffin has closed operations, probably temporarily. The startup has asked its employees to look for new jobs. It’s website has been inactive since March 25 and displays a message ““We’re taking a break to re-work. We’ll be back.”
18. EazyMeals
EazyMeals was based in Delhi and provided on-demand food. The startup raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Matrix Partners but had to shut operations after 8 months of launch. The reason for the same is still not known.
19. Klozee
Klozee was a Bangalore-based online apparel rental platform that allowed customers to access apparels on rent. It shut down operations pointing to the challenges faced by players in the pre-owned apparel sale and rental space in India. The co-founders of Klozee have now joined home decor marketplace Livspace.
20. Zeppery
Founded in 2015, Zeppery was a restaurant food pre-ordering app that allowed users to pre-order food at restaurants and other food outlets. It raised $77K from angel investor Suyash Sharma but decided to shut operations just 6 months after commencement. The founders stated that they were trying to copy a US based startup Tapingo but soon realised that the Indian market was still immature for that kind of model.
21. MovinCart
Founded in 2015, MovinCart was a hyperlocal grocery delivery app. Co-founder Rajat Jain quit the company in January and the other two co-founders, Nikhil Gupta and Anurag Meena, set up a logistics-tech platform, under CloudPlay Technologies.
22. ClassVerse
ClassVerse was a Delhi-based startup that provided access to fitness studios, classes and gyms to users for a monthly membership fee. It also offered access to activities such as zumba, cycling, yoga, dance, kickboxing, bodybuilding, swimming, badminton, tennis and others. Owing to difficulties in achieving unit economics, the startup had to shut operations.
23. Amber Wellness
Amber Wellness was an on-demand online beauty startup. The startup raised $1 Mn in risk capital from undisclosed angel investors but had to shut operations after few months of operations. The startup was operational in 3 cities – Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai and had to shut operations in all.
24. Tushky
Tushky was an online marketplace for discovering and monetising leisure activities. It raised $340K of investment from GSF, 500 Startups, TA Ventures but had to shut down after it failed to scale up and raise further funding. The startup was founded in 2011. Co-founder Talvinder Singh has now joined Oyo.
25. PepperTap
PepperTap was founded in November 2014, and provided online shopping for groceries and household items, which included shopping via its mobile application. It operated from November 2014 to April 2016 and was the 3rd largest hyperlocal startup in India. The company has now pivoted to a full stack e-commerce logistics company.
26. Help Chat
Chat-based personal assistant app Helpchat closed down its chat wing and fired close to 100 people. The fired employees are a part of the chat operations and quality team as confirmed in a blogpost by founder Ankur Singla. The company decided to phase out chat from the app and create the same level of experience using automation and simple user interfaces. The company was initially launched as a complaint resolution platform called Akosha. It had pivoted last year to a chat based personal assistant.
27. Hey Bob
Hey Bob, which was Bangalore’s first bike taxi startup had to shut shop due to failure in raising fresh round of funding. Co-founder Vishal Kumar has reportedly joined Bengaluru-based online gifting startup GiftXOXO as its sales lead for special projects. All four of the cofounders have moved on.
28. Flipkart Nearby
Flipkart shut down its grocery delivery division Nearby that was launched in October last year in Bangalore. It noticed that the hyperlocal delivery market is less evolved, where demand is low and differentiation almost non-existent.
29. LazyLad
Founded in April 2015, hyperlocal mobile commerce marketplace LazyLad pulled down its shutters and laid off close to 30 people in the process. Saurabh Singhla, co-founder and CEO said that the company is looking at pivoting into a business-to-business (B2B) focused marketplace.
30. GetNow.at
Another hyperlocal on demand service provider, GetNow.at also closed down operations in June 2016. It was based in Nagpur and started by Jayesh Bagde in November 2014. It has raised an unknown amount of seed funding in July 2015 from Atulya Mittal, steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal’s nephew but failed to tell the success tale.
31. AAGAAR.com
Delhi-based hyperlocal grocery delivery service AAGAAR.com, run by Asankhya Retail Pvt. Ltd, shut down its operations. Its website is no longer accessible and redirects the viewer to a temporary webpage. The reason why the startup pulled down it’s shutters in still unknown.
32. BiteClub
BiteClub, launched in 2014 by Aushim Krishan, Prateek Agarwal and Siddharth Sharma to connect consumers and home chefs via a mobile app and the website shut shop in May,2016. Although investors including Powai Lake Ventures, growX ventures and a group of angels invested in BiteClub but it stepped back as it could not solve few problems.
33. AUTOnCAB
Autorickshaw-hailing app AUTOnCAB has shut down its operations as it couldn’t sustain its business due to stiff competition from its heavily funded rivals, its co-founder and CEO told. The company was running operations in six cities—Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Kota, Chandigarh and Jaipur. It also laid off 40 employees in the process.
34. AppSurfer
AppSurfer allowed instant access to any app from the Android world without the need to download it. The startup experimented with various business models and spent months making software that would help users try out apps before downloading them. The startup said that it could not survive as the killer blow was announced by Google that it would launch ‘Instant Apps’, a feature that enables users to stream apps instead of downloading them.
35. GrocShop
GrocShop was a Mumbai-based online grocery delivery startup and was among the 16 startups which were selected for the Google Launchpad programme in May, 2015. According to co-founder Ayush Garg, they were late in entering the market. Competition was steep as the market was already saturated in this domain.
36. ZnaPin
Mumbai based startup, ZnaPin was a social networking platform which helped to connect with people using selfies. According to the founder, the company was facing a cash crunch for the last 14 months. With a monthly burn rate of $5,928 (INR 4 Lakh)-$10,307 (INR 7 Lakh), the founders steadily lost money. They were eventually forced to shut shop. The startup raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding but founders say that it had been in paper only. They reached out to 3 unnamed investors twice, who promised funds every time but denied at the last moment.
37. FlashDoor
Flashdoor was an on-demand laundry service platform. It followed a curated marketplace model and operated its own logistics service to collect clothes from customers. However, increased competition and low returns forced founders to shut shop despite raising an angel round of funding in November 2015.
38. MealHopper Technologies
MealHopper was a foodtech startup that connected local cooks with users for homemade meals. Before shutting down, the startup was delivering 100 meals a day and was also planning to launch operations in three more cities by March 2016. However, the startup had to shut shop as it was unable to scale business and make profits. They were also unable to raise funds and struggled with operational and logistics operations.
39. DoorMint
On-demand laundry services startup Doormint, which washed and ironed around 1.2 million clothes for people in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Gurgaon over the last two years shut shop. The startup was selected in the first batch of Google Launchpad accelerator and was one of the most heavily funded startups in this domain. Despite several tweaks with the business model, Doormint found scaling up tough. As a result, the cash burn became unmanageable.
40. EnCashea
Founded in 2015 by Priyank Jain, Rahul Jaiswal, and Harshal Chaudhary, EnCashea used to facilitate doorstep scrap pickup from both the website and app. It used to allow users sell scrap, metals, old newspapers and other electronic waste items either directly online or through mobile. Jain said they gradually realised that the feasibility of a B2B model is limited, given the thin margin, customised requirements of customers and relatively higher working capital needs.
41. Zimply
Zimply is another startup that pulled down it’s shutters in February 2016 without mentioning any convincing reason! It was founded in 2014 by Karan Baweja, Ishaan Bhola and Viraj Verma to make online shopping of home decor easy. It had raised $510K funding amount from Matrix Partners and a group of Angel investors.
42. WhatsonRent
Online rental marketplace WhatsOnRent.com, run by Weblevered Technology Pvt. Ltd, shut down its operations recently, amidst an inability to raise the next round of funding and a realisation that the business model may not work. The startup allowed customers to rent products across a wide range of categories such as home appliances, kitchen appliances, laptops, furniture, treadmill and medical equipment. WhatsOnRent co-founder Bharat Goyal said that the company has returned more than 50% of the seed funding it had raised to the investors.
43. Shopisty
Although the reason for shut down of Shopisty is not ascertained, it is believed that they failed to raise fresh round of funding. The startup raised seed funding last year from Sandeep Aggarwal, founder and former chief executive of ShopClues; and Teruhide Sato, founder of Netprice (now Beenos), a global Internet and e-commerce business incubator. It was the second venture of Danish Ahmed who was also the co-founder of Yebhi.com. The founder has reportedly joined Paytm as vice president of O2O business.
Like every successful startup, even these startups were built with care and effort. It was luck or bad business models that forced shut down affecting many lives. We hope that aspiring entrepreneurs learn from them.
Team THS
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