express news service
Kochi: 2022 has not been a very good year for Kerala startups. Some have been successful, but most still have a long way to go to attract investment and enter the market. The war in Ukraine and inflation at home, combined with the recession, resulted in a fundraising winter, eclipsing startups not only in Kerala but across the country.
But Finotes CPO Robin Alex Panicker said this year was better than last year for every parameter he tracked. “To date, 30 deals have raised a total of $249.33 million. The average deal size was $8.31 million, but that number doesn’t mean much as the number of deals is still below optimal.” No, it’s still the best ever,” he said.
“Of the total of $249.33 million, about 80%, or $198 million, was donated by four companies,” he added. “Of the 30 transactions, 19 transactions totaling $196.65 million were completed in the first half, and 11 transactions totaling $52.68 million were completed in the second half. % decrease, meaning a 73% decrease in funding.
Startup mentor SR Nair says funding in the winter negatively impacted the state’s startup ecosystem. “The Ukrainian war, inflation and recession led to a fundraising winter by mid-year. The most affected start-ups were edtech companies. Education tech companies boomed during the Covid lockdown. But the period after the restrictions were lifted was the beginning of a bad patch,” he said.
Except for a handful of companies, no major influential startups have emerged in Kerala, he said. According to Robin, names worth mentioning are Carestack, Open, and Jiffy. “These all raised over $50 million last year. Genrobotics, Entri, Tooljet, Finsall and BuildNext are some of the companies that have raised over $1 million,” he added. But Mr. Nair said, “If you look at the company’s performance, it’s been a slump this year.”
