2016 is set to finish its journey. It has been a year with noteworthy ups and downs, especially for startups. 2016 was a year that most of the startups will prefer to forget for being disappointing, heartening and futile. In 2015, startup growth was steady and impressive, not less than three to four startups a day. But in 2016, trend overturned with series of layoffs and shutdowns. A number of things reportedly contributed to this downfall, specially lack of funds, declining sales and rising competition.
Here is the list of startups that shut down their shops in 2016.
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1. TinyOwl:
This food ordering firm winded up its operations in May in all 11 cities where its services were available, except Mumbai. Soon after its launch in 2014, the startup mired with serious financial troubles. That crunch led to 600+ job cuts in the company between September 2015 and January 2016. Later, Raodrunnr acquired the startup and rebranded it as Runnr.
2. Dazo:
Another app based food delivery startup Dazo shut down its operations in October 2016. The ill-fated startup forced to down its shutters barely after one year of its start. Despite a solid backing by Google India chief Ranjan Anandan, TaxiForSure co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna, and former Freecharge chief executive Alok Goel, the company failed to create any footprints.
3. PepperTap:
App based and online grocery delivery startup PepperTap is another big name that succumbed to serious financial crunch this year and shut down operations. This Gurgaon-based startup tried its best to stay afloat but couldn’t make any good. The startup was floated in 2014 and had raised funding in four rounds from biggies such as Sequoia Capital, SAIF Partners, Snapdeal and others. During the good times, PepperTap had acquired Jiffstore, a hyperlocal grocery marketplace.
4. Fashionara:
Fashionara, a then renowned online fashion store, was started by former reliance Reliance Trends CEO Arun Sirdeshmukh and former Times Internet chief technology officer Darpan Munjal in 2012. Due to financial difficulties and cut-throat competition from rival e-stores, the company shut its operations in May 2016. In such a short span of time, the company raised $4 million from Venture partners and Lightspeed Venture partners.
5. Purple Squirrel:
Purple Squirrel was a Mumbai based startup that engaged students with industry giants and big companies for industrial exposure, training and employment. The company closed down its operations in May 2016 due to financial overburden and consistent drop in sales revenue.
6. AskMe:
The renowned consumer internet search platform closed down its services in August citing severe cash crunch. The company was forced to shut down due to the exit of its principal investor Astro Holdings. The closure that snatched nearly 4,000 jobs, was reportedly took place due to fragile technology, growing competition and aggressive acquisitions.
7. ZuperMeal:
Another home-delivery food venture ZuperMeal bitten the dust and shut shop in May. The closure happened just around eight months after it raised seed funding. Despite having backing from celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, the startup failed to get momentum back and decided to drop the curtains.
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