Startup funding: Snow is melting, slowly but surely

E-COMMERCE PLATFORM MEESHO, quick commerce company Zepto and fintech firm Navi are all reportedly in talks to raise around $300 million from investors.

- AYANTI BERA

If these funding rounds materialise, they will be among the very few large rounds in the last one year. 

Does this signal that the startup funding winter is giving way to a funding spring? Industry veterans agree things are getting back on track, but what is missing is the irrational exuberance one saw in the past when capital-chased startups and cash burn became a fashionable business model.

This means companies with a sustainable approach to growth and profitable unit economics will get a preference over those with a "growth-at-all cost" approach.

"The fundamental question is how much capital can our market absorb in the future," said Deepak Gupta, general partner at WEH Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund.

HE BELIEVES THAT the inflows should I grow organically going ahead. "If we keep putting $25 billion into the market every year for the next three years, we will have some serious problems down the road," Gupta said.