This year’s layoffs reflect a  dampening investor enthusiasm for the high-profile space. According to specialized employment service Xpheno, 25,000 people lost their jobs in the country’s previously booming tech sector.

As per Tracxn,  a platform that provides curated profiles of over 1,00,000 startups, the funding winter of 2022 led to Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai seeing the fewest number of startup deals in the last five years. 

The Delhi-NCR region has been hit the hardest as its startups saw funding drop 52% to $5 billion this year. While Bengaluru retains its pole position as the most attractive destination in India for venture capital, with $11.7 billion, it is 46% lower, compared to last year, Tracxn data found. Funding for Mumbai-based startups fell 26% to $4 billion in 2022. The platform further stated that the funding winter of 2022 led to Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai seeing the fewest number of startup deals in the last five years.

Also Read

Traxcn data also revealed that 2,404 startups closed their doors in 2022, more than double the 1,012 that had shut shop in the previous year. About 266 startups that shuttered this year were funded by venture capital, angel investors, family offices or institutional investors. The companies had raised close to $290 million, the data showed.

Edtech faced its harshest year, with 25 funded startups in this sector closing their doors. Funding for edtech startups in India fell to $2.4 billion in 2022, down from $4.1 billion in the previous year, according to Tracxn.

Among notable edtech startups that shuttered in 2022 were Lido Learning, Udayy, SuperLearn, and Crejo.fun.

And then there were high-profile conflicts and exits.

Former MD of BharatPe Ashneer Grover was accused of embezzlement by the payments firm. As a result, he and his wife Madhuri Jain had to leave BharatPe earlier this year.

Bhavik Koladiya of BharatPe left because of “disagreements” with CEO Suhail Sameer.

Mohit Gupta, co-founder of Zomato, quit the company in November after a four and a half year stint.

Porush Jain, stepped down from his positions as director and CEO at Nazara Technologies-owned Sportskeeda in November.