One of the interesting happenings in 2019 was the increasing focus of investors and startups on profitability. In India, larger unicorns such as Paytm, Ola, Oyo and others have all increasingly emphasised on generating profits in the next few years. At the same time, these billion-dollar startups also have IPO plans as soon as they hit profitability. One Indian soonicorns, a potential unicorn, which has talked about plans to go public is furniture marketplace Pepperfry.

Publication: Inc42

Date: December 27, 2019

A plethora of regulatory changes covering startups is in the works to reduce time spent on tax compliance by them to less than one hour a month along with easier incorporation processes and boosting the availability of global and domestic capital. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is in talks with the ministries of finance and corporate affairs, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Reserve Bank (RBI) over the new measures.

Publication: ET Tech

Date: December 27, 2019

The funding environment for domestic early-stage companies will remain competitive next year, as a diverse set of global investors eye India, even as late-stage consumer internet companies will face difficulty in raising capital, investors and founders said. The financing slowdown will, in turn, pave the way for consolidation, mergers, and building stronger unit economics across startups.

Publication: ET Tech

Date: December 28, 2019

Late-stage deals in Indian startups are expected to slow down, with investors turning cautious of funding companies with a high burn rate following the meltdown of WeWork. The Indian startup ecosystem has been marked by a number of high-growth, near-decade-old businesses, which, despite being nowhere near profitability, continue to raise huge volumes of capital with no near-term exit route insight for investors. Think Ola, Oyo, et al. But this may change soon.

Publication: Mint

Date: December 27, 2019

An industry desperately looking for clarity. India’s ecommerce industry, estimated to be worth over $ 50 billion, remains enmeshed in regulatory flux. With the final word yet to be said on the National Ecommerce Policy, separate guidelines have been drafted by different ministries on issues such as consumer protection and data privacy confounding an industry in search of regulatory clarity.

Publication: The Economic Times

Date: December 30, 2019

The DPIIT is working actively on the e-commerce as well as new industrial policies, and both are expected to be released by the end of this fiscal, a top official has said. “I personally feel that both these policies will be ready by this financial year end,” Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade Trade (DPIIT) Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra told PTI. He said that the department has done several round of stakeholders’ meetings on both the policies.

Publication: The Economic Times

Date: December 30, 2019