SaaS Company Toplyne, Sponsored by Tiger Global, Ceases Operations

Nitin Konde, Varun Bhardwaj

Oct 15, 2024 — 2 min read

Toplyne SaaS Company Shuts Down Operations

After operating the firm for almost 3.5 years, Toplyne, a provider of sales automation systems, has decided to wind down and return funds to its investors.

Having spent 3.5 years developing Toplyne, company has decided to sell the company and give its investors their money back. Company's greatest attempts failed to achieve the scale or product-market fit that it desired, Rishen Kapoor, a co-founder of the company, revealed on LinkedIn. Approximately 30 people made up the squad, according to Kapoor.

The 30 person team, comprising sales, customer success, machine learning, product, design, HR, and engineering, all put in their all. He said, "The company's priority right now is on assisting its clients to guarantee a smooth transition and helping its team members find their future employment (if anyone is hiring, please reach out).

Series A Funding

The company announced in May 2022 that Tiger Global and Peak XV (formerly Sequoia Capital India) had led a $15 million Series A investment round. Participating in the round were the Together Fund, Sequoia India's Surge accelerator program, and additional angel investors. Rishen Kapoor, Ruchin Kulkarni, and Rohit Khanna founded Toplyne in June 2021. The company's focus is on assisting product-led growth (PLG) companies in converting users into paying clients.

Current Startup Scenario In India

Among recent startup closures, Toplyne is the most recent. Over the past several months, several startups have failed, including the insurtech business Kenko Health, the upskilling and job-finding platform Bluelearn, the social media app Koo, the artificial intelligence-driven software startup Nintee, and the spiritual tech venture My Tirth India.

The fact that Indian entrepreneurs have had fewer job losses in the first half of 2024 is intriguing. It presents a positive image of the labour market and demonstrates their adaptation and endurance in the face of shifting economic conditions. Both the government and the industry have welcomed this news, which is much-needed after the record-breaking layoffs of 2023.

According to a Longhouse Consulting analysis, in the first half of 2024, startups saw fewer employment losses than they did in the same period the previous year. Startups eliminated around 11,250 jobs between January and June of 2024, a far smaller number than the 21,000 positions eliminated at the same time in 2023. Even during the second half of 2023, which ran from July to December, there were only about 15,000 layoffs at startups overall.

In addition to layoffs, hiring patterns for Indian companies were also emphasised in the research. Hiring levels in the first half of 2024 are still 35–40% lower than in 2021–2022. On the plus side, hiring has increased from the dismal year of 2023, when it was roughly 60–70% less than the previous fiscal year.