'Funding Winter' Recovery May Take More Than 6 Months
The current condition of the startup ecosystem is going downhill, with overall funding continuing to decline. During the BW Businessworld Web 3.0 Summit and Awards 2023, Vikram Gupta, Founder & Managing Partner at IvyCap Ventures, conveyed his thoughts on the funding situation. "Twelve months ago, I had hoped that within the next year, we would see a resurgence in funding," Gupta said.
"Unfortunately, things haven't changed as anticipated and in fact, some areas have worsened,” he added. Gupta predicted that the recovery of funding in the startup ecosystem would take more than six months.
While there might be signs of improvement, he cautioned that the industry would have to wait for a significant period before investors would truly open their wallets once again.
The most crucial challenge, Gupta underlined, was the substantial drop in Series C and D deals. These funding rounds, which were abundant in 2021, had come to an abrupt halt, leading to a trickle-down effect on early-stage startups. Series A, seed, and pre-Series A deals had not been immune to the repercussions, even though the overall flow and value of deals from seed to Series A had shown some growth.
Gupta further emphasised that certain sectors might witness a faster revival in funding compared to others.
