According to business analysts, there occurs a shift in investment patterns. Their observation suggests that unicorn minters like Tiger Global and SoftBank are shifting their focus back to early-stage funding rounds due to the downturn in the global market and the fall of tech stocks.
The Japanese tech investment firm SoftBank registered a record $13 billion loss in FY22. The fair value of some of its companies, including India’s Paytm and Policy Bazaar slipped by more than half during the last quarter of FY22. At the same time, Tiger Global lost two-thirds of its cumulative gains which amounts to $17 billion since last year due to the tech rout, says analyst firm LCH Investments.
Last year, Tiger Global participated in as many transactions by investing 2.2 billion, while SoftBank poured in 1.57 billion across the Indian startup ecosystem. Now, the unicorn minters have slowed down their investment radar. And, according to industry experts, the current market sentiment is in favour of seed-stage/Series A stage companies. The recent investment by the New York hedge fund, and Tiger Global is an example. They have participated in a 2.6 million seed round of e-commerce enablement platform, Shopflo.
However, the data by research firm Tracxn shows that the Tiger has invested in seven seed-stage startups in India across eight rounds. SoftBank has invested in only one seed startup across two rounds. The total funding by both the investment majors is over $10 million.
