According to executives familiar with the potential offers who spoke on the condition of anonymity, BillDesk, Byju’s, Zetwerk, Goqii, and Swiggy are among the startups that have experienced investor default in the last six to eight months.
Prosus NV, the investment arm of South Africa’s Naspers, announced on Monday that it was abandoning its $4.7 billion all-cash purchase of payments service provider BillDesk after the lengthy deadline to close the deal expired. Similarly, Zetwerk announced on December 29 that it had raised $250 million from a variety of investors, including Iconiq Capital, in a deal valued at $2.7 billion, but two people familiar with the situation claim that Iconiq Capital did not follow through on the capital commitment. Zetwerk and Iconiq did not respond to requests for comment.