Digital solutions startup Protonn has shut down its business in less than a year after raising $9 million in seed funding, Founded in 2020 by former Flipkart executives Anil Goteti and Mausam Bhatt, Proton used to allow independent professionals including lawyers, graphic designers and nutritionists to launch their own business online, create videos, conduct live sessions, generate payment links, and track their performances.
Anil Goteti had served as a senior vice president at Flipkart before joining Protonn in November 2020. Mausam Bhatt had also worked at Flipkart before leaving to join Google and eventually, Protonn.
Protonn launched its product in the American market after raising seed funding. The funding round was led by Matrix Partners India with participation from 021 Capital and Tanglin Venture Partners. Angel investors Binny Bansal (Flipkart), Kalyan Krishnamurthy (Flipkart), Neeraj Arora (WhatsApp), Sujeet Kumar (Udaan) and Kunal Shah (CRED) also participated in the round.
According to ET, the startup was unable to find the right product-market fit and the founders didn’t agree to pivot the business towards another line. Hence, it has completely shut operations and let go of all its employees.
“Covid-19 didn’t help the startup either, but there was a point when a pivot became necessary but founders weren’t on the same page on that,” said a source to the publication, adding that the startup has returned the full capital to its investors.
