Next year will be worse for tech than 2022: Unacademy's Gaurav Munjal

Amid the funding winter and widespread layoffs, Unacademy Group cofounder and CEO Gaurav Munjal has said that next year will be worse for tech than 2022.

Taking to Twitter, Munjal said, "2023 will be worse than 2022 for Tech. This is what I keep hearing."



The tweet comes at a time when thousands of tech workers across the world have lost their jobs in cost-cutting measures by US tech giants. Layoffs across the tech industry, including at Big Tech companies such as Twitter, Meta and Amazon, have affected hundreds of Indians.

Munjal's edtech startup also sacked as many as 350 employees recently in a bid to reduce costs and turn a profit. Unacademy had earlier this year fired around 1,000 contractual and full-time employees.Several new-age companies in India, including edtech firms such as Byju’s and Vedantu, have fired employees amid a serious slowdown in big-ticket funding deals.

The tech turmoil was also one of the biggest talking points at The Economic Times Startup Awards, held recently.

A panel comprising top names from India’s startup and tech brigade discussed how new-age firms are navigating the current downturn and addressing issues such as growth versus profitability.

Participating in the discussion, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart Group, said, "The next 12 to 18 months is where we will see a lot of turmoil and volatility, post which I think things will be much better. Krishnamurthy said that he had anticipated the downturn in 2021.

"In 2021, companies saw a spike in valuation of two times to six times with some underlying assumptions for the next two to three years. I think very quickly it was clear that those assumptions are not going to play out, whether it is on growth or profitability," he added.

Harsh Jain, cofounder and CEO, Dream Sports, had said that the problem occurs when "you try to hyper-grow when your unit economics are not in place".

"We need to have that 2008 kind of mindset, where you cannot count on funding six or 12 months down the line. I mean we can't be non-profitable forever," Jain had said at the event.

Investor skittishness is also reflected in private capital inflow, with funding for Indian startups falling to $2.7 billion in the quarter ended September 30, from nearly $12 billion during the same period last year, per data from analysis provider Venture Intelligence.