The many lessons from failed Indian kirana tech startups

Not too long ago, several firms set out to bring neighbourhood stores online, hoping to fix pandemic-disrupted supply chains. Today, there’s a pervading sense that they misread the market.

Note: This is the fifth story in a series where The Morning Context is doing deep dives into sectors where the Indian venture capital hypothesis has failed to live up to the hype. 

Over the past two decades, VC firms of all varieties have sold the India story to a whole host of institutional investors across the world. Several sectors have been packaged together, from e-commerce and education to real-money gaming, classifieds and short video, to create this powerful idea that a market of a billion Indians is ripe for consumption, technology disruption and wealth creation. Where pouring VC funds …

Author

Anuj Suvarna

Anuj covered all things startups and venture capital at The Morning Context. Previously, he worked at VCCircle, where he covered healthcare and private equity. Anuj studied mass communication at the Manipal Institute of Communication and before journalism, he operated a bar in Udupi.

Writer

anuj@mailtmc.com

Bengaluru