ETtech State of Startups Survey: Founders resist valuation cuts as funding drought drags on
funding drought to continue in the first six months of 2024, according to ETtech's annual State of Startups survey.
Nearly 80% of the respondents to the survey conducted among 80 of India’s top founders, investors and internet executives, said they would not accept a lower valuation for their companies, while 74% said the funding freeze would only start to ease up in the second half of next year.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIIM LucknowIIML Executive Programme in FinTech, Banking & Applied Risk ManagementVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Digital TransformationVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Professional Certificate in Product ManagementVisit Around 12% of the respondents said the squeeze in capital allocation to new-age companies may get worse in 2024 compared with this year when the ecosystem witnessed a seven-year low in fundraising.
Turning profitable emerged as the top priority for Indian startups amid predictions of more business restructuring, layoffs and possible bankruptcy cases in 2024.
Nearly 60% of founders and investors who participated in the poll believe valuations in India have corrected, similar to markets like the US. Companies with adequate cash are trying to avoid new fundraising as much as possible to protect their valuations while startups running out of cash said they will have to start funding next year.
Other respondents to the survey said the true test of corrections in valuations will play out only once the investment cycle kicks in again.
Sumer Juneja, managing partner, India & EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) at SoftBank Investment Advisers, had told ET in an interview in August that late-stage firms with adequate capital
