Who is going to buy all the shares that venture capital & private equity investors eventually need to sell? For years, the Indian startup narrative was dominated by capital deployment. Investors competed to discover the next unicorn, founders competed for larger funding rounds, and valuations became the shorthand for success. But the cycle has changed. The next phase is likely to be defined not by the availability of capital, but by the availability of liquidity. This is the

"Every startup founder has a good idea — that's never the bottleneck. The real question is whether solving the problem creates enough economic impact to sustain a business. Two founders taught me this last month: one built an 'AI CFO' while seeking advice from human finance pros themselves; another, building a platform for teachers, had the courage to say it wasn't a startup — it was a nonprofit. Here's checklist item #1 for every founder."

Udaan has raised $2–2.5B over its lifetime — more than its current private valuation of roughly $0.8–1.3B, down from a $3.2B peak. Founders hold just 12.43% of the cap table. FY25 losses (₹1,055 cr) still exceed the latest equity round, revenue fell 20%, and an offshore bond default triggered insolvency proceedings in Singapore. The IPO push looks less like a growth story and more like investors engineering a documented exit at a marked-down price.

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