Unpleasant are the predictions of Kalyan Krishnamurthy, head of e-commerce giant Flipkart, who shared at the rally organized by India’s Economic Times newspaper, GWN reports. 

“It’s going to be tough next year. My estimate is that a lot of startup founders will hit the market between April and June next year, and that’s the moment of truth for the ecosystem”,

he said at a rally this weekend organized by India’s Economic Times newspaper, GWN reports. 

Krishnamurthy also told hundreds of attenders that startup founders should take a top-down approach and restructure their companies. Many startup founders are unwilling to take a haircut on their previous valuations in new funding deliberations, investors say.

“In 2001, companies saw their valuations increase by 2 to 6 times with underlying assumptions of growth and profitability for the next two to three years. I think it quickly became clear that these assumptions will not come to fruition,”

Krishnamurthy said, describing the increase in startup funding in India over the past year.

Indian startups raised a record $39 billion in 2021 as investors aggressively sought to double down in emerging markets. In contrast, as the market reserved its position earlier this year, funding in the quarter that ended in September slipped below $3 billion.

Walmart-owned Flipkart, last valued at $37.6 billion, froze hiring earlier this year and halted its acquisition spree, which had already seen it spend around half a billion dollars to grow in the healthcare and online travel categories.