Unicorns Become ‘Cockroaches’ When Tech Funding Dries Up

For years, becoming a unicorn was the main goal of startups. Now, with venture funding drying up and many young firms’ survival in doubt, another creature is the talk of the town: the cockroach.

Venture capitalists and technology chieftains converged in Singapore in recent weeks to hobnob over a number of high-profile annual conferences, marking the city-state’s grand coming-out-of-Covid party. Yet gone was glamor and talk of blitzscaling, and participants instead focused on the drastic need for conserving cash and a dimming future.

“It’s cockroach time -- do whatever it takes to survive,” Tessa Wijaya, co-founder of Xendit ...