Elevation and Accel-backed Anar shuts down operations

B2B networking platform Anar has decided to shut down its operations, the company’s founder and chief executive Nishank Jain announced the development on X (formerly Twitter).

According to Jain, the startup will return the capital left with the company to investors. In September 2021, the firm raised $6.2 million in a seed round co-led by Elevation Capital and Accel India with participation from First Cheque, Utsav Somani along with founders of startups such as ShareChat, Meesho and BharatPe.

“While there was tremendous user love, especially on seller side, we failed to solve enough for sellers. We tried networking, leads, and multiple ways of transactions but nothing was 10x. And we realized that's because sourcing is just not a top-of-mind problem for retailers,” said Jain.

Launched by Jain and Sanjay Bhat, Anar used to help small and medium business (SMB) communities build their network across omnichannel. Retailers, resellers, wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers used to create their own profiles, upload their catalogs, create posts, form connections, post requirements, and interact with each other.

Jain also added Anar noticed that retention was still low and buyers were not getting enough value.

This can be gauged from the company’s financial performance in FY23 which was its third full financial year after the official launch in February 2020. As per startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Anar registered negligible revenue in FY23 with Rs 17.32 crore losses.

Several startups have announced shutting down their operations due to funding crunch and other reasons. Recently, cosmetics brand Belora shut down its operations. Teenagers-focused neo-banking platform Akudo is also shutting down its core UPI and card business. The list also includes Vah Vah, OSlash, FrontRow, and three gaming apps Fantok, One World Nation (OWN) and Quizy.