There is a much talked about funding winter within the Indian start-up ecosystem. However, Vidit Atre, co-founder and CEO of Meesho, an e-commerce platform, had some advice for start-up entrepreneurs. Citing his own example, Atreya said he and his co-founder Sanjeev Baranwal started Meesho in the “funding winter of 2015”.
Funds invested in the first two quarters of FY 2022 hit an all-time low, two and a half years after the COVID-19 pandemic. per cent as compared to the year-ago period, according to data shared by Tracxn. Several start-ups like Unacademy also announced layoffs citing lack of funding.
“Many startups fail, leaving a lot of pre-entrepreneurial talent available in the market. These were extremely talented people with high ownership who really wanted to prove their mettle,” Atre wrote on the social media platform LinkedIn.
He also said that Meesho’s first three engineers and heads of business were all “ex-founders”. Starting out in the middle of a funding winter also meant there were few competitors, Atre said.
Atre concluded by saying that companies with weak business models are never able to make the cut in times when capital is limited or unavailable. He reiterated that if start-ups are able to survive and thrive during this period, they will have huge growth potential when the next wave of economic boom arrives.
Meesho was founded by Atreya and Baranwal in Bengaluru. The company that enables small businesses to sell their products online has raised multiple rounds of investments from the likes of SoftBank, which has invested in reputed start-ups like Paytm, WeWork, Didi Chuxing, Uber and others. It is also backed by Fidelity Management and Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group.
It has digitally enabled around 17 million entrepreneurs in India, according to estimates by global investment group Prosus.
