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Edtech startup Bluelearn shuts operations, to return 70% of capital

EntrackrEntrackr · 12m ago
Edtech startup Bluelearn shuts operations, to return 70% of capital
Medial

Social learning platform Bluelearn on Sunday announced that it has shut down its operations as the firm found it tough to grow fast. The three-year-old firm will return 70% of the capital it raised to its investors. The Bengaluru-based startup had raised nearly $4 million across two rounds from Elevation Capital, Lightspeed, Titan Capital, 2am VC. Angel investors including Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Awais Ahmed, Vivek Mohan and others also backed the community driven platform. “We realised that building a venture-scale business with Bluelearn was tough. We had been very conservative with capital, allowing us to return 70% of the capital we raised back to investors,” Bluelearn’s co-founder and CEO Harish Uthayakumar said on X. Founded by Uthayakumar and Shreyans Sancheti, Bluelearn started off as a telegram channel for students to help each other with common questions. At its peak, the startup claimed to have over 250,000 members from various colleges and startups across India and abroad. Since its inception, the company has helped thousands of students with internships, jobs and make friends through its online community. More than half a dozen startups operating in India shut down their operations in 2024 so far. The list counts Resso (India), Rario, OKX (India), Muvin, GoldPe, Koo and Nintee. However, a few of them have also announced to return a significant capital to their investors. For context, Paras Chopra-led digital health startup Nintee, which shut down its operations in April, said that it will return a majority of the capital raised from its investors. Similarly, trading app Investmint will return 25% of capital as it underwent insolvency proceedings. As per a media report, fashion startups Fashinza and Virgo will also return capital to their investors after a failed pivot. As per data compiled by TheKredible, more than 15 startups ceased their operations due to funding crunch and other challenges in 2023.

Tiger Global-backed Toplyne shuts down operations

EntrackrEntrackr · 9m ago
Tiger Global-backed Toplyne shuts down operations
Medial

Plug-and-play platform Toplyne is shutting down operations and returning capital to investors, according to sources who spoke to Entrackr. This decision comes as a surprise, given that Toplyne had raised funding from prominent investors like Peak XV and Tiger Global. “Despite securing sizable funding, the startup struggled with scaling beyond a certain point, leading the founding team to make the decision to wind down and reach out to investors to return remaining capital,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity. Toplyne is a plug-and-play platform designed to help sales teams at product-led growth companies increase conversion rates among freemium users. Founded by Rishen Kapoor, Ruchin Kulkarni, and Rohit Khanna, this three-and-a-half-year-old startup facilitated lead conversion by integrating actionable insights directly into products, enabling companies to turn potential leads into paying customers. “After 3.5 years of building Toplyne, we’ve made the tough decision to wind down operations and return capital to our investors. Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t reach the scale or product-market fit we aimed for,” said Rishen Kapoor in a LinkedIn post. Toplyne has raised over $17 million in total capital from investors including Peak XV, Tiger Global, Surge, Together Fund, and angel investors like Kunal Shah and Harshil Mathur. According to the startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Toplyne was valued at approximately $80 million in its latest fundraising round. Sources indicate that one of the co-founders, Rohit Khanna, exited the firm sometime last year due to differences within the founding team. Queries sent to Kapoor and Peak XV didn’t elicit any immediate response. Toplyne joins a group of startups that have shut down operations in 2024 while returning partial capital to investors. Others on this unique list include Greenik, Fashinza, Virgio, Investmint, Bluelearn, Paras Chopra-led Nintee, and Karthik Gurumurthy-led Convenio.

Neobank Muvin shuts down operations

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Neobank Muvin shuts down operations
Medial

Youth-focused neobanking startup Muvin has shut down its operations, according to sources aware of the development and the company’s communication with its users. The shutdown is a result of the RBI direction which forbade UPI in a co-branding arrangement. “muvin card program has been closed. Any available balance is being migrated to issuer Livquik app. The migration is expected to be finished by 1st Feb and we would notify nextsteps to access your balance. Thank you for the support and we regret that muvin is unable to support your journey towards financial literacy,” said a notification sent by Muvin to its users. The Muvin app was also not available on Google Play Store. In June 2023, RBI directed PPI issuers to stop UPI in a co-branding arrangement. The directive forced DreamX (Dream11), Fampay, Akudo, Muvin and CheqUPI to discontinue UPI services as they did not hold PPI license. Entrackr had exclusively reported about this in June 2023. Recently, Akudo also shut down its wallet operations. Besides Muvin, LivQuik was also a PPI issuer for Akudo. Fampay, the largest player in this space, also pivoted to a full-fledged neobank from a teen only due to RBI directive. The firm also found it tough to raise follow-on money and saw top level exits and fired nearly 80 employees in 2023. Entrackr has reached out to Muvin and Livquick for more details. Co-founded by Vineet Gupta and Mukund Rao, Muvin used to cater to both teens and young adults through its prepaid card and mobile app. Before winding up operations, Muvin raised $3 million in a pre-Series A round led by WaterBridge Ventures in January 2022 and a seed round of over $1 million in April 2021.

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