The year 2022 revolved around layoffs, shutdowns, consolidations, valuation cuts, shelved IPO plans, and even deal reversals amid the global economic meltdown
In the year of irony, while the unicorn count fell nearly 50% to 21 compared to 44 in 2021, the number of new VC Funds rose 2.2x versus 2021
In the next two months, Inc42 will publish more than 50 features to give a thorough glimpse of 2022 and what’s waiting for the Indian startups ahead in 2023
Unlike 2021, which despite being marred by the COVID-19 pandemic brought optimism to the Indian startup ecosystem, the current year failed on many fronts. Amid the highs and lows, we saw stakeholders celebrating certain wins and learning from their failures. All in all, the Indian tech startup ecosystem emerged a bit more mature.
The year in review, primarily, revolved around layoffs, shutdowns, consolidations, valuation cuts, shelved IPO plans, and deal reversals amid the global economic meltdown. The funding winter set in right from the beginning, indicating drastic market corrections with investors on the sidelines. The policymakers became active during the year, thereby keeping startups across industries on their toes.
Although India added 21 unicorns to the club, taking the total to 108, the number is nearly 50% of the 44 unicorns added to the club in 2021.
However, on a positive note, the number of new VC Funds, who pledged more than $18 Bn in investments, until November 2021 stood at 122 compared to 33 VC funds last year. All this dry powder from investors is expected to be invested next year, thereby boosting funding activities and the average ticket size of funding by the second or third quarter of 2023.
As 2022 moves closer to drawing the curtains, it’s time to reminisce about the key events, breakthroughs, trends, controversies, and more. Like every year, we are back with the 9th edition of our annual review series — 2022 In Review.
In the next two months, Inc42 will bring its readers more than 50 features to give a thorough glimpse of how the year remained for the Indian startup ecosystem.
We aggressively covered all these developments throughout the year. From tech to people and from policies to controversies, we published more than 4,900 articles, which included a mix of exclusives, opinion pieces, and data-packed analysis, and over 20 detailed ecosystem reports.
We also hosted three groundbreaking summits this year— The Makers Summit 2.0, The D2C Summit 3.0, The Fintech Summit – and engaged with more than 250 thought leaders, founders, investors, and policymakers. During the summit, we hosted several fireside chats and masterclasses, inducing insightful and thought-provoking discussions. One can definitely look forward to our ‘2022 in Review’ stories, which reflect our learning from the same.
Here’s what you can expect in our ‘2022 In Review’ series:
Survival Of The Fittest: A Year When Everyone Was On A Rollercoaster Ride
2022 can be marked as a historic year in terms of downfall. In fact, all startups reversed their IPO plans after the tech stocks launched in 2021 wiped off significant investor money from the market. Further, edtechs went through a survival crisis, and fintechs had to absorb the shock of RBI tightening the noose.
Global companies like Amazon and Twitter shut down several of their units in India. If this was not enough, more than 15,700 employees were laid off, taking a severe toll on their mental health.
Not to mention, while companies such as Zomato, Mamaearth, and Paytm found themselves amid the social media trial from the public, Google’s spat with CCI, Meta controversies, and Twitter’s acquisition by Elon Musk continued to give jitters to all their stakeholders.
Amid continuous controversies and spats, it felt that post-Covid survival was more difficult than actually bearing the pandemic, phew!
The Inc42 team is now gearing up and collating all these to facilitate you with a detailed and exhaustive list of all these events in multiple articles.
Funding Winter: A Year When Investors Remained Silent Spectators
The Covid-19 effects subdued this year, taking funding levels back to the pre-pandemic era. The Indian startups raised $24 Bn in 2022, a little less than 50% of the $42 Bn raised in 2021.
So, amid the downfall, which sectors grabbed the spotlight? Where and at what stage the investors invested the most? Who made it to the unicorn club, who stands on top of the funnel, and how does the funding scenario look in 2023?
Inc42 will take a deep dive into all of these questions in more than 15 articles, sharing a recap of the funding tapped by the Indian startup ecosystem amid the highs and lows of 2022.
Mergers & Acquisitions: A Year When Consolidation Remained The Key Trend
The Indian startup ecosystem witnessed 227 mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in 2022, the highest since 2014. This count is expected to reach 1.4K by 2023. This article will take a deeper look at the major M&A deals of 2022, factors driving the consolidation momentum in the ecosystem, and the aftermath associated with them.
Under The Spotlight: A Year When List Of Newsmakers Kept On Rising
The year marked the farewell to many founders who had bid adieu to the businesses they built. Invact Metaversity’s Manit Maheshwari, BharatPe’s Ashneer Grover, Zilingo’s Ankiti Bose – the list is filled with a lot of influential names.
We also saw celebs from Bollywood and cricket investing in Indian startups. Mira Kapoor, Rakul Preet, Dia Mirza, Ranveer Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, and the list keeps growing. These articles will cover an exhaustive list of key people under the spotlight with some interesting details around them, something which you would not like to miss!
Outlook 2023: Predictions For The Year Ahead With Views From Industry Experts
In addition to the aforementioned promises, the series will touch upon predictions for the year 2023. Based on our interaction with industry experts, key leaders, and investors, we will be giving a glimpse of IPOs that might see the light of the day in 2023, expected deals, funding, and more.
Plus, we have planned a lot of action around web3, gaming, D2C, consumer internet, EV, UPI, policies that changed the startup game, and freedom of speech, just to name a few.
We appreciate you being our reader throughout the year. If you have joined us recently, these articles will definitely be your go-to read to cover everything you need to know about what happened in the Indian startup ecosystem in 2022 and its expected impact on the year ahead. All articles under the series ‘2022 in Review’ can be explored here.
We wish you all the best and a very happy new year 2023.
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