After 4.5 years of operation, the fintech startup Niro, which assisted consumer internet platforms in offering embedded credit products, has closed. Investors like Elevar Equity, GMO Venture Partners, Rebright Partners, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance VC, Innoven Capital, Alteria Capital, and CRED founder Kunal Shah supported the Bengaluru-based company, which was established in 2021 by Aditya Kumar and Sankalp Mathur.
In a LinkedIn post announcing the shutdown, Kumar stated that after 4.5 years, $20 million in finance, $200 million in loan disbursements, and 30 collaborations, “we’ve had to shut down Niro.”
What is the Core Reasons for Niro’s Clossure?
Just as the company was changing its business model, Shah explained, it was struck by “a perfect storm of regulatory pushback on personal lending, credit deterioration, and sub-optimal capitalisation,” which led to its demise. By collaborating with banks and NBFCs, Niro’s primary offering was to assist online platforms in integrating credit products; in other words, it transformed big consumer apps into fintech distribution channels.
The business expanded quickly and was one of the first in this field. According to Kumar, Niro had accomplished the seemingly impossible by recruiting amazing people, raising patient, high-quality funding, and persuading major consumer internet platforms and top lenders to collaborate with us in order to unleash value at scale.
Within just over two years of its start, Niro had $100 million in assets under management, and at its height, its platform had over 170 million members. During its existence, it also signed 30 partnerships and disbursed $200 million in loans. However, the company was compelled to alter its strategy at an unfavourable moment due to the swift legislative changes in the digital lending environment, declining credit quality, and financial limitations. Kumar described the situation as “a perfect storm.”
Financial Dynamics of Niro
Tracxn, a market intelligence platform, reports that Niro raised $18.7 million in four investment rounds, valued at $58.4 million. It had about 290 employees at its height. With ten years of experience, Kumar is a fintech entrepreneur who founded Qbera, a digital lending company that InCred later purchased. He oversaw InCred’s consumer loan division after the acquisition.
The closure of Niro coincides with a number of fintech startups dealing with increasingly stringent laws, declining credit scores, and a more conservative investment climate, all of which have made it harder to scale lending operations.
Quick Shots
•Fintech startup Niro, backed by Kunal Shah and top
VCs, shuts down after 4.5 years of operations.
•Launched by Aditya Kumar and Sankalp Mathur to help
consumer internet platforms offer embedded credit products.
•Raised $18.7M in funding, valued at $58.4M,
disbursed $200M in loans, and had 30+ partnerships.
•Achieved $100M AUM and reached 170M+ users at its
peak.
•Closure reflects wider fintech struggles with new
regulations, investor caution, and scaling hurdles.
Due to a “client” funding crisis and difficulties in attaining the proper product-market fit (PMF), EV ride-hailing startup MyPickup has ceased operations. MyPickup’s founder, Abhijeet Jagtap, announced the news on LinkedIn. He said that during “non-peak times”, the startup was having trouble achieving PMF.
Jagtap founded MyPickup in 2022 to provide daily commuters with a subscription-based electric autorickshaw service. By removing the need to arrange rides every day, removing surge fees, and offering an environmentally friendly fleet, the firm claimed to be tackling the everyday commute problem. MyPickup was limited to providing services in Bengaluru at the time of its closure.
As a founder, Jagtap understated the time to PMF and capital needed to carry out such an idea, he wrote in the piece. In May of this year, the Inflection Point Ventures-backed business reported having 19 vehicles and facilitating about 4000 journeys.
From Creating EV Commuting Solutions to Downfall-Journey of MyPickup
An EV three-wheeler fleet was made available via MyPickup for daily shared commuting. Users could enter the time, place, and number of days they wanted to commute.
The app computed a weekly subscription charge using these details. In a week, users could reserve slots for a minimum of five rides and a maximum of ten rides. The startup provided shared rides with no cancellations. Additionally, the same driver was assigned for a single subscription cycle. Last year, MyPickup secured INR 1.5 Cr from Ideaschool, an accelerator at Inflection Point, to grow its business. MyPickup stated at the time of the fundraising that it will use the money to improve its scheduling algorithm, increase the number of EVs in its fleet, and create a special app for its drivers.
At the time, MyPickup claimed to have a monthly run rate of INR 1.5 Lakh and ran a fleet of 7 electric cars, serving 45 customers. In order to give users ride-booking choices, the firm first operated over WhatsApp before launching its own website. It continued to introduce new features throughout time in an effort to increase its clientele and improve user experience. MyPickup released its iOS and Android mobile apps for users after raising money from IPV.
Adding New Features-Still Not Enough to Increase Clientele For MyPickup
Jagtap said at the app’s debut that it would make cancelling and rescheduling easier for users. In order to provide a smooth client experience, the firm at the time also updated subscription costs and algorithms.
The startup intended to create safety features, including GPS monitoring, SOS systems, and webcams for parents who wanted to use MyPickup for school pickup and drop-off. In an effort to increase its clientele, it was also considering providing on-demand services via the ONDC platform. But according to Jagtap, none of this mattered. In his post, he claimed that “our four pivots also did not give the level of customer experience we wanted to create.”
Quick
Shots
•Struggled with achieving
product-market fit (PMF) and faced a client funding crisis.
•Abhijeet Jagtap Founder admitted
underestimating the time and capital required to scale the business.
•Offered subscription-based electric
autorickshaw services for daily commuters with fixed drivers per cycle.
•Raised INR 1.5 Cr from Ideaschool
(IPV accelerator) in 2023; reported 19 EVs and 4,000 trips by May 2025.
Following India’s complete prohibition on real-money gambling (RMG), Bharti Airtel scion Kavin Bharti Mittal is closing his 13-year-old firm Hike. In order to concentrate on international markets, including the US, UK, and Australia, Mittal had already announced ambitions to leave India.
In a statement on the mailing platform Substack, Mittal stated, “After regrouping with our investors and the team, I’ve made the difficult decision to wind down Hike completely.” He said that the company’s US operations, which were only started nine months ago, are going well. But following the ban in India, expanding internationally would necessitate a complete overhaul, which is not the most efficient use of time or money.
According to Mittal, Rush employed over 100 people and functioned as a group of “SWAT teams” in India, the US, Dubai, and Singapore, as he told Moneycontrol last month. Small, highly competent, and agile teams that swiftly resolve complicated or urgent issues are frequently referred to as SWAT teams in the corporate world.
Hike’s Network and Growth in India
Before shutting it down in January 2021, Hike, which began as a messaging service in 2016 to compete with market leader WhatsApp, reached 40 million monthly active users. Later, the business changed course and started developing Rush, a casual RMG platform. In addition to including Web3 technologies that allow user ownership and play-to-earn principles, it included 14 mobile games with a financial component.
India’s Real-Money Gaming Ban and Its Impact
The new online gaming law in India forbids online money games in which a user deposits money, either directly or indirectly, in the hopes of making a profit. “RMG was never the destination,” Mittal said in the piece, but rather a “way to test unit economics and traction in India while working towards a bigger vision.” “In hindsight, starting in India locked us into the model and regulatory headwinds, turning a temporary path into a more permanent one,” he stated. Although it may be ahead of its time, Mittal stated that the “vision for Gaming Nation is real.”
“In gaming and Web3 Company 2.0, the world will eventually shift towards a nation-type model. We don’t want to recreate India, where we hoped for clarity that never materialised, but crypto legislation is still evolving globally,” he said. He went on to say that there are greater chances to use outstanding talent and money, as well as more pressing issues to address. Sunil Bharti Mittal, the founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, the parent company of Bharti Airtel, is the father of Kavin Bharti Mittal.
Quick
Shorts
•Hike was planning expansion in US, UK, Australia,
but ban forced full wind-down.
•Rush (Hike’s gaming unit) had 100+ employees across
India, US, Dubai & Singapore.
•India’s new online gaming law bans
money-deposit-based games.
•Launched in 2016 as a messaging app; Hike hit 40M
MAUs before shutting in Jan 2021.
The four-year journey that once promised to revolutionise India’s pre-owned two-wheeler business has come to an end with the closure of Bengaluru-based Beepkart.
According to a statement posted on the startup’s website, BeepKart is still totally dedicated to helping its current clients. We appreciate your participation in the BeepKart adventure. Currently, negotiations are underway for its creators to sell BeepKart’s tech stack and assets.
According to various news reports, they also want to give investors their money back. Hemir Doshi and Abhishek Saraf, the cofounders of BeepKart, did not reply to Inc42’s enquiries regarding the development. When a response is received, the story will be updated.
Closure of Chennai Plant & Layoffs
This follows many media stories stating that BeepKart has closed its Chennai operations and fired all of its employees there. The startup was also progressively closing its Bengaluru offices. At the time, a BeepKart representative had stated that the company was transitioning to an asset-light operating model.
The spokesman also stated that BeepKart had a “comfortable runway”, had “substantially” increased its profitability, and was negotiating an M&A deal with possible strategic investors. But such conversations never came to pass. Established in 2021, BeepKart has raised more than $18 million from well-known investors, including Innoven Capital, Stellaris Venture Partners, and Chiratae Ventures.
Why BeepKart Failed Despite Rising Revenues?
By providing consumers with inspection, refurbishment, financing, and warranties, the firm positioned itself as a full-stack platform for buying and selling old two-wheelers. Nevertheless, the business model suffered from high operational costs and narrow margins.
After raising money between 2022 and 2024, BeepKart expanded aggressively, opening several outlets in Bengaluru and Chennai; however, this strategy backfired. Numerous stores were positioned close to one another, which reduced each other’s clientele rather than broadening their reach.
Investor Backing & Aggressive Expansion
Despite a 165% YoY increase in revenue to INR 100 Cr in FY24, BeepKart’s loss doubled to INR 66 Cr. According to reports, the cost of refurbishment accounted for around 10% of car pricing, making it challenging to maintain profitability in a market where consumers are highly sensitive to price.
Uncertainty was increased by the startup’s recent run of high-level departures, which included the departures of its CTO and important business leaders. In the meantime, social media was inundated with complaints from its consumers regarding subpar after-sales services and vehicle condition.
Challenges in India’s Used Two-Wheeler Market
The demise of BeepKart joins an increasing number of failures in India’s second-hand two-wheeler market, where CredR and Cars24’s Moto have already ceased operations. Scaling has been very challenging due to a number of variables, including low margins, fragmented supply, and investor unwillingness to support operations-heavy models, even though the addressable market is huge.
Quick
Shots
•Bengaluru-based BeepKart, once poised
to revolutionize India’s pre-owned two-wheeler segment, has shut down after
four years.
•Startup posted closure note on its
website, ensuring support for existing customers.
•Founders are negotiating sale of tech
stack & assets; reports suggest investors may get their money back.
•Shutdown follows closure of Chennai
plant and layoffs.
According to those familiar with the situation, Otipy, situated in Delhi NCR, ceased operations last week, as reported by a media outlet. On Saturday, the farm-to-fork vegetable supplier shut operations, leaving about 300 workers struggling to make ends meet.
Otipy cofounder and CEO Varun Khurana told his staff during a town hall on 17 May that the startup is unable to continue with its operations and encouraged them to find a better alternative. It was shocking, according to a media article that cited a former employee.
Like every other Saturday, employees went to work. They were subsequently told that they had lost their source of income. The ground beneath their feet seemed to have vanished. Additionally, a media report has discovered that Otipy has not paid employee salaries for the last 1.5 months.
In response to a question about this in the town hall, Khurana stated that the business will attempt to sell off its assets in order to pay off all outstanding debts.
Vendor Payments Not Yet Cleared
The Otipy has yet to settle outstanding vendor payments, according to a media report. One of the merchants told a media outlet that the issue began in October of last year when the payments began to be delayed.
At first, the founder and other members of the management would reassure us, but since the start of this year, no one has answered their phone.
In addition to informing its clients that it was closing, the business promised to start the refund process within 60 to 90 days. Otipy was testing electric carts to sell fruits and vegetables offline in the Gurugram area for over five months before the abrupt shutdown.
At the time, Entrackr stated that the business aimed to deploy 5,000 to 7,000 of these carts in Mumbai and Delhi NCR by 2026. Additionally, the news portal discovered that the business was also experimenting with the rapid commerce model.
Otipy, a B2B2C social commerce network for fresh produce, including fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and other food items, was founded in 2020 by Khurana and Prashant Jain and is a division of Crofarm Agriproducts. It is a Crofarm-owned stepped-down subsidiary.
Funding Rounds Till Now
Otipy intended to raise $10 million in a lengthy Series B investment round, according to media reports. It is still unclear, though, if the business was successful in obtaining this cash. The firm raised $32 million in a Series B fundraising round led by WestBridge Capital in March 2022, with SIG and Omidyar Network also participating.
The business has raised $44 million so far in many rounds of funding. Otipy’s sales in FY24 were INR 160 Cr on a stand-alone basis, which is 68% more than the INR 95 Cr it recorded in the prior fiscal year.
Additionally, the firm was able to cut its loss from INR 72 Cr to INR 52 Cr, a 28% decrease from the previous year. Crofarm has not yet submitted its FY24 financial statements. Fraazo, another WestBridge-backed business involved in vegetable delivery, has already ceased operations.
It’s the age of insane confidence and risk-taking tendencies. And by that, I mean delving into the field of business. Referred to as startups in the premature stage. Everyone wants to found’ a startup today. Unfortunately, not everyone is successful. Here is a list of twenty Indian startups that shut down, and the reasons behind their failure.
Even unique startups in India, that have a good business model could not suffice as the funding failed up till 2021. So what’s the reason behind this? We are going to check out the list of Indian startups shut down for various different reasons. So one can learn from past examples before heading towards posterity. Below here is the list of Indian companies that shut down in India till 2021.
Bala Venkatachalam, Subhashini Subramaniam, Dev Vig
Launch
2014
One of the first failed startups in 2018 is Babyberry which is a parenting app and forum dedicated to helping new parents with the care and development of their newborn babies in all aspects, such as physical, mental, and emotional. The founders shut down the company citing that they would reopen after they had solved the technical glitches as reported by customers. Around $1 million was invested.
COINSECURE
Startup Name
Coinsecure
Headquarter
Bangalore
Founder
Mohit Kalra
Launch
2014
Another failed startup in India is Coinsecure one of the fastest and largest online bitcoin exchange platform in India. The company aimed to make their company by building a reputation for integrity and educating Indians about blockchain and bitcoin. Unfortunately, a hack in April 2018 led to the theft of BTC 438 amounting to $3.3 million leading to it being one of the shut down companies in India . Bankruptcy looms in the background unless the company recovers the money.
Contentmart was founded to provide a platform for content writers to put their skills to use. The nature of jobs was not restricted to blogging; any content related job was put up on the platform. They extinguished revenues ( which is the third reason behind the failure of startups) and also lacked a business model, which led to their shutting down in August 2018.
EBAY
Startup Name
Ebay
Headquarter
San Jose, California
Founder
Pierre Omidyar
Launch
2005
Ebay which is a popular online e-commerce platform that connects buyers and sellers. Their auction business model allows buyers to place bids. Although popular in the US, they faced heavy competition from Amazon and Flipkart. Also, the auction model wasn’t a welcome one leading to it becoming an unsuccessful startup in India. This led to their acquisition by Flipkart in 2018.
Ezytruk is a truck and logistics platform, aimed to connect manufacturers and transportation services, comparing service rates and charges as possible. The seed funding round raised almost one crore, but as the founders were unable to raise funds in subsequent rounds, making them incapable of scaling, leading to their shutdown in 2018.
HOLACHEF
Startup Name
Holachef
Headquarter
Mumbai
Founders
Anil Gelra, Gaurav Srivastava, Saurabh Saxena
Launch
2015
Holachef a famous failed startup in India, was a platform that connected chefs and customers in the city. According to menu specials, the company oversaw the preparation, packaging, and delivery of food. The arrival of Swiggy, Zomato, and FoodPanda led to a loss of interest from the investors’ side and a subsequent cash crunch.
JUSTBUYLIVE
justbuylive
Startup Name
Holachef
Headquarter
Mumbai
Founders
Bharat Balachandran, Sahil Saini
Launch
2015
JustBuyLive was founded with the aim of connecting retailers directly with brands. The retailers owned small and medium enterprises. What lead to the company getting closed is that it offered working capital to the retailers to get started. Even with massive funding of 700 crores, their faulty business model and negative cash flow contributed to their failure.
MonkeyBox was a lunch delivery service that provided vegetarian meals to school students. Their customer lists boast of nearly eighty-five schools and over 1500 students. Crossing two thousand subscribers, acquiring other food businesses were milestones. The reason for the shutdown is unclear, although the company cited ‘ being unable to achieve targets’ as the reason. They are one of companies that shut down in India but are however working on strategy and are hoping to resume services in the future.
MR.NEEDS
Startup Name
Mr.Needs
Headquarter
Noida
Founders
Hitashi Garg, Ravi Wadhwa, Ravi Verma, Yogesh Garg
Launch
2016
Mr.Needs is a grocery delivery service. It works on an online subscription model. It delivered around thirty-six thousand orders monthly. A founder declared that their delivery charges were at least half comparatively. Again, the reason for failure is unclear, but fierce competition in the field from BigBasket and others may have been the reason for their shutting down.
OFO
Startup Name
OFO
Headquarter
Bengaluru
Founder
Dai Wei
Launch
2017
OFO is a China-based bike rental company backed by the Alibaba group which launched its service in India. Despite the availability of huge market potential in India, the company withdrew its services in 2018. The reason given was that the growth rate of the company did not match that of other countries, and hence resources could be better spent elsewhere.
Shotang had a middlemen business model. It connected manufacturers, retailers, and distributors. As middlemen, commissions were its revenue. Unfortunately, fierce competition from Flipkart and amazon forced the company to shut down.
STAYZILLA
stayzilla
Startup Name
Stayzilla
Headquarter
Bengaluru
Founders
Yogendra Vasupal, Rupal Yogendra, Sachit Singhi
Launch
2005
This unsuccessful startup in India, Stayzilla was started out of the founders’ passion for traveling. They created a travel platform for travelers to stay in homestays and collaborated with almost 55000 properties. The reason they failed was that they burned cash in trying to create demand. Although they showed a remarkable growth rate, their aim to scale and rebrand resulted in high capital investments which did not match revenues earned.
TASKBOB
Startup Name
Taskbob
Headquarter
Bengaluru
Founders
Aseem Khare, Abhiroop Medhekar, Ajay Bhatt and Amit Chahalia
Launch
2014
Taskbob was a startup that aimed to provide home services to customers. The services can be anything- beauty to home repairs. While the idea was great and achieved targets, it was neither scalable nor profitable. A rise in margins saw a fall in the number of customers. Ultimately, they had to shutdown company in India.
Tapzo was an app aggregator- it brought together apps across all categories under a single roof. Despite having a huge user base- around fourteen thousand users, regular subscriptions, and solid investments, the startup was valued nearly at half the value of the previous round of investments. This led to the acquisition of Tapzo by Amazon Pay.
Tazzo is a bike rental company similar to the startup OFO discussed above. The startup’s app came with live GPS tracking and they charged around INR 5/km. A lack of funding in subsequent rounds owing to a lack of profitability led to its shutting down in two years.
WYDR
Startup Name
WYDR
Headquarter
Gurugram
Founders
Devesh Rai, Hitha Uchil, Varun Guru
Launch
2015
Wydr was an e-commerce platform selling a range of products to a range of buyers. They boasted of almost ten thousand manufacturers. Customization and price negotiation were key advantages. The investors consciously scaled-down the startup for three months before shutting it down and did not declare any reason for doing so. We can speculate that competition might have been a reason.
YUMIST
Startup Name
Yumist
Headquarter
Gurugram
Founders
Alok Jain, Abhimanyu Maheshwari
Launch
2014
The startup founded by a former Zomato official and a restauranteur served home-cooked food at affordable prices. Lack of funding was the main reason behind their failure.
Zebpay is another cryptocurrency exchange platform. At its peak, it has almost three million subscribers. A policy issued by the Reserve Bank of India, restricting payment companies to extend cryptocurrency services and a subsequent redressal hearing fixed after a year, left the cryptocurrency trading policies in limbo. Amidst the uncertain environment, the company decided to shut down.
Any entrepreneur knows that there is an element of risk involved with startups. The solid funding round does not guarantee continuous funding. The market is ever fluctuating. It is important to give your one hundred percent to every startup you work in or found because it is a learning process. Taking risks and exploring the unknowns will give you a world of exposure rather than sticking to your comfort zone for the sake of success.
Doodhwala
Startup Name
Doodhwala
Headquaters
Bengaluru
Founders
Aakash Agarwal and Ehbraham Ali Khan
Launch
2015
Doodhwala is a recently shut down company (2019) which was based in benagluru as a milk delivery. The startup worked on a subscription based model and offered various groceries products across categories. Doodhwala has raised over $4 million across multiple rounds from investors like Mumbai based VC firm Omnivore Partners. In October 2019, it was reported that Doodhwala had halted its delivery operations across three operational cities.
DocTalk
Startup Name
DocTalk
Headquartered
Mumbai
Founders
Krishna Chaitanya Aluru, Akshat Goenka and Vamsee Chamkura
Launch
2016
Another Mumbai based Healthtech startup DocTalk and enabled the patients to connect with doctors while also allowing to share medical reports and obtain prescriptions through its mobile app. According to media reports, this well funded healthcare startups failed to pivot its business model and could not achieve the acceleration it needed.
