Praxis documents travails of Indian startups due to Covid-19

06th April 2020
Praxis documents travails of Indian startups due to Covid-19

April  6 2020:  Management consulting and business research services firm Praxis has aggregated insights  from over 50 Indian startup founders, about the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak. 
The Startup Sentiment Survey Report has some   broader benchmarks/learnings, as well, for the startup community.
The Key takeaways

  • In the last 2 weeks, ~50% of startup CEOs faced operational challenges, drop in productivity and delay in payments
  • Over the next 3 months (Apr Jun 2020),  approximately 84% of CEOs believe the fundraising environment will decline and 74% of CEOs believe growth will decline
  • The next 2 year outlook is positive for profitability (69% believe it will be better than FY20) and moderate for growth and fundraising
  • Over 50% Indian startup CEOs believe new business opportunities will start to appear after the initial 3 months (June 2020 onwards)
  • Some 21% of startups have cash reserves of less than 6 months, 37% with 6-12 months, 21% with 12-24 months and 21% with more than 24 months of cash. While 52% of startups think they would require cash reserves of more than 12 months for business continuity
  • About 50% of organizations have already cut marketing and discretionary costs,  some 68% are not planning about any kind of downsizing
  • Top 3 focus areas for Indian startups apart from conserving cash: process standardization, expansion/growth planning, fundraising
  • Top recommendations by founders - Focus on managing/conserving cash by cutting costs but no layoffs