US-based Neuberger Berman marks down valuations of PharmEasy & Pine Labs

US-based Neuberger Berman has marked down the valuations of two Indian unicorns- fintech firm Pine Labs and medtech start-up PharmEasy. In its latest filings, the mutual fund house has reduced the fair values of API Holdings and Pine Labs by 21.6 per cent and 39 per cent to $4.3 billion and $3.1 billion. 
 
It is interesting to note that PharmEasy’s parent company API Holdings was planning its initial public offering this year. However, the IPO plans were shelved owing to the prevailing market conditions and some strategic considerations. The Mumbai-based company is also backed by prominent investors such as Tiger Global Management, Temasek, Orios Venture Partners, among others. 
 
Pine Labs is a Noida-based fintech unicorn founded in 1998 by Lokvir Kapoor, Rajul Garg and Tarun Upadhyay. The company was also planning an IPO according to media reports which were shelved due to the market conditions. However, Amrish Rau, CEO of the company said in a media interview recently that the public listing will happen at some point but right now, the window for it is shut. 
 
Over the last few months, several tech companies have seen their valuations getting slashed amid a funding crunch within the ecosystem. According to a report by Bain and Company, start-up funding has been declining consistently since June 2022. The report noted that in April this year, the total fundraise was pegged at $980 million which is considerably low compared to $3.4 billion in June 2022.
 
Pine Labs and PharmEasy apart, other players whose valuations got slashed include BYJU’S, Swiggy, Ola, OYO, etc.
 
US-based asset manager BlackRock reportedly cut the edtech giant BYJU’S valuation by nearly half to $11.5 billion a month ago. American investment firm Invesco slashed foodtech giant Swiggy’s valuation to about $5.5 billion from $8 billion, according to a recent filing. 
 
Even travel tech OYO, which is gearing up for its IPO despite the market conditions, saw its valuation dropping to $6.5 billion from $12 billion after the company’s key investor SoftBank reduced the value of its stake in the start-up.
 
Another US-based investor Vanguard has slashed the valuation of ANI technologies, the parent firm of Ola, by 35 per cent to $4.8 billion. Ola was previously valued at $7.4 billion.

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