Here are some of the prominent startups that announced shutdown in July 2018
Mental health startup, Lantern is shutting down its operations – A San Francisco based startup Lantern is folding its commercial operations on August 1 after a few acquisition deals fell through. Lantern’s app allowed users to complete a self-evaluation assessment. It then provided daily exercises, which helped people pinpoint and restructure negative thoughts.
Verizon is shutting down go90 – Verizon is pulling the plug on go90, its mobile video service (disclosure: Verizon owns Oath, which owns TechCrunch). It represented a big investment for the telecom company. After a big splashy launch in October 2015, the service never really found its audience. “Following the creation of Oath, go90 will be discontinued,” Verizon told Reuters in a statement. “Verizon will focus on building its digital-first brands at scale in sports, finance, news and entertainment for today’s mobile consumers and tomorrow’s 5G applications.” According to Digiday, Verizon could have spent as much as $1.2 billion on content acquisition for the service. The company acquired Vessel, bought a stake in AwesomenessTV and bought distribution rights for Vice Media shows.
Twitter Shuts down Online Safety Company Smyte after acquiring it – Social media giant, Twitter, announced that it had acquired Smyte, a startup focused on delivering online safety and anti-spam solutions. Interestingly, a day after the acquisition was announced, Twitter shut down the Smyte .
Chinese bike-sharing firm on the verge of shutdown fires India staff – The Chinese bike rental company Ofo has shut down its operations in India and fired most of its 30 employees in India. The Alibaba-backed startup had launched operations in India in January 2018. Ofo, which offers station-free bikes operated via an app, claimed to have completed 1.1 million rides within four months in India.
Bluechip angels and Tracxn backed foodtech startup Twigly shuts down – While foodtech majors (Zomato and Swiggy) in India enjoying their best days in terms of scale and fundraising, the space has always been extremely difficult for small players. In yet another case of shutting down, food-ordering startup Twigly has abandoned its services almost after three years of operations.
VC-funded cookie startup Doughbies shuts down – This week, founders of the VC-funded cookie startup Doughbies posted a Youtube viedo announcing they were shutting down. “Team Doughbies is moving on. Click here to learn more!“