17 Failed Indian Startups & Analyses on Why they Failed
Countless startups are being launched every day in India.
Many fail because they did not learn from the success of other companies who've managed to rise above.
We're constantly researching why startups fail, and here's a list of 17 failed startups from India (ike Koinex and RoomsTonite) with analyses on why they shut down, and interviews with their founders.
17 Failed Startups Founded in India
1) Dazo
Dazo was a food-tech startup based in Bangalore which emerged as a “food on demand” company. Fierce competition and lack of funding led to Dazo's failure.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Monica Rastogi, Shashaank Shekhar Singhal
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2015
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
2) Frankly
Frankly.me was a Q&A social platform that wasn’t able to raise the necessary round of funding. That is why the CEO of Frankly decided to shut it down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Abhishek Gupta, Nikunj Jain
- Industry: Social Media
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Funding Amount: < $1M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of PMF
You can read more about their failure here.
3) HotelsAroundYou
HotelsAroundYou was an India service centered on last-minute and short stay bookings. They weren't capable of raising more money and had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Animesh Chaudhary, Harsha Nallur, Mohsin Dingankar
- Industry: Travel
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: < $1M
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
4) Koinex
Koinex was a cryptocurrency exchange platform. India's laws got harsh against cryptocurrencies and the obstacles and little profits led to its shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Aditya Naik, Rahul Raj, Rakesh Yadav
- Industry: Finances
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2019
- Nº of employees: 50-100
- Specific cause of failure: Legal Challenges
You can read more about their failure here.
5) Lumos
Lumos provided the ultimate smart switching tech. After the shutdown, the founders recognized they were not the right team to build a hardware company.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Pritesh Sankhe, Tarkeshwar Singh, Yash Kotak
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2015
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Experience
You can read more about their failure here.
6) PepperTap
PepperTap provided a platform to buy and deliver groceries from local markets. Customers found delivery fees too expensive for their needs, and shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Milind Sharma, Navneet Singh
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 1,000-5,000
- Funding Amount: > $50M
- Specific cause of failure: Poor Product
You can read more about their failure here.
7) RoomsTonite
RoomsTonite was a last-minute hotel booking app for people traveling to India. They raised $1.5M in funding but the money didn't arrive and they shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Suresh John
- Industry: Travel
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 100-250
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
8) SchoolGennie
SchoolGennie provided solutions that saved time, reduced costs, and helped make better decisions on schools. But they didn’t test their product-market fit.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Amit Gupta, Pardeep Goyal
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2014
- Nº of employees: 1-10
- Funding Amount: $0
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Experience
You can read more about their failure here.
9) Stayzilla
Stayzilla, once a thriving homestay network with $33.5M in funding, closed due to unsustainable operational costs and consistent financial losses.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Rupal Yogendra, Sachit Singhi, Sachit Singhi, Yogendra Vasupal
- Industry: Travel
- Started in: 2005
- Closed in: 2017
- Nº of employees: 250-500
- Funding Amount: $10M-$50M
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Focus
You can read more about their failure here.
10) Zoomo
Zoomo's goal was to build trust in the Indian used cars market. The buy-and-sell vehicle market was relatively young in India and decided to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founders: Arnav Kumar, Himangshu Hazarika
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2016
- Nº of employees: 10-50
- Funding Amount: $1M-$10M
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
11) Adleaf Technologies
Back in 2013, Chetan Vashistth founded his first startup business called “Adleaf Technologies”, a blend of programming bootcamps and software solutions. Business was good for a while, but the challenge of multiple bad business decisions paired with failed money management proved to be the business’s demise. In this interview, we will talk about the lessons Chetan learned the hard way.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Chetan Vashistth
- Industry: Education
- Started in: 2013
- Closed in: 2014
- Specific cause of failure: Mismanagement of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
12) Autto.in
Autto.in was an on-demand doorstep car service provider, created by Deepak in 2017. Soon after launching, a co-founder joined him and they started marketing the startup, spending a lot of money in customer acquisition. As money burnt, they decided to reach investors, who put them pressure in growing fast. After some months, they decided to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Deepak Murthy
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2017
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
13) FreshConnect
Tarun co-founded Freshconnect, an online B2B marketplace for fresh agricultural produce like fruits & vegetables. After making mistakes like lack of focus and bad hiring, they couldn't secure a funding round and eventually got acqui-hired by another company.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Tarun Gupta
- Industry: e-Commerce
- Started in: 2018
- Closed in: 2020
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Management
You can read more about their failure here.
14) InoVVorX
InoVVorX was an app development company that both worked for clients and built their own projects. The business did it well for some time, having a team of 25 people, making $300k from their services, and raising $100k. However, their plans on working on their own products (too many of them) meant they started burning all the money and eventually had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Maxim Dsouza
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2010
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
15) Jobridge
Jasmeet is an Indian software engineer who a few years ago decided to build new revenue strategies for his business directory and decided to build a job board with a unique offline-online model. But their idea was too ahead to the time and, due to a bad business model, they had to shut down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Jasmeet Singh
- Industry: Software & Hardware
- Started in: 2017
- Closed in: 2017
- Specific cause of failure: Bad Business Model
You can read more about their failure here.
16) Mishra Motors
Mishra Motors was to be the premier electric sports bike in India. Time and capital were the causes of its collapse.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Naveen Mishra
- Industry: Transportation
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2016
- Specific cause of failure: Lack of Funds
You can read more about their failure here.
17) The Punjab Kitchen
Amit is a hard-core sales professional, who decided to set up a home-made food business with his wife. They started investing $1,200/month to set up the startup and get the first customers. However, once running they had to confront a big problem: the prices of their competitors were much lower. After some pivots, they decided to shut it down.
Details of the startup:
- Founder: Amit Gogia
- Industry: Food & Beverage
- Started in: 2014
- Closed in: 2015
- Specific cause of failure: Competition
You can read more about their failure here.
