The Staggering Amount Of Money Startups Like Jawbone Raised And Blew, Before Shutting Down

Avid fan of Silicon Valley? Then you might have an idea about how damning and demanding the startup culture is.

You see, for every thriving billion dollar unicorn that is galloping its way through the “valley”, there are endless companies that have had to shut their doors due to any number of reasons, from poor management to, well, a believing in and working on a really shitty product.

So now that 2017, the year that was supposed to be better than 2016 but failed miserably, is almost over, Business Insider tallied up some of the best-funded startups that shut their doors this year:

Altogether, these companies raised $1.695 billion in venture capital funding. But it’s now basically all gone, and investors can no longer hope to break even via an initial public offering or by having the companies acquired.

Eina. Here are five:

Beepi: 2013 — February 2017

Capital raised: $150 million
Peak valuation: $560 million

Beepi, whose website that brought together car buyers and used-car sellers, shuttered in February. Both Fair.com and used-car dealer DGDG considered buying the startup, but ultimately decided against it. In the end, Beepi ran out of money.

Jawbone: 1997 — July 2017

Capital raised: $1 billion
Peak valuation: $3 billion

Jawbone was a pioneer in wearable devices, with a focus on fitness trackers and portable speakers, but it struggled to pay its vendors. In July, Jawbone closed its doors and began liquidating its assets. In its place, company founder and CEO Hosain Rahman started a new company called Jawbone Health Hub in the healthcare hardware and software space.

Raptr: 2008 — September 2017

Capital raised: $44 million
Peak valuation: $170 million

Raptr folded in September after nearly a decade as the go-to social network for gamers. Its service helped them keep track of which games their friends were playing and made it easier for them to remotely play multiperson games.

Though Raptr expanded its offerings to include game optimization, the company outlasted its usefulness as more gaming companies offered similar services. Its fate was sealed in 2016, after the company lost a key partnership with chipmaker AMD, which stopped bundling Raptr’s app with its graphics software.

Yik Yak: 2013 — April 2017

Capital raised: $73 million
Peak valuation: $400 million

Yik Yak, whose anonymous social media app was at the center of several college harassment scandals, announced its closure on April 28 after struggling to keep users on its platform. Just days before Yik Yak closed shop, payment company Square acquired its engineering team for a cool $3 million.

Quixey: 2009 — February 2017

Capital raised: $133 million
Peak valuation: $600 million

Quixey, whose mobile search engine was able to crawl apps, laid off most of its staff at the end of February. It seems the company never found its footing or a steady revenue source, despite replacing its founding CEO, Tomer Kagan, in March 2016.

That’s a shit tonne of money to be throwing around, hey? You can check HERE for more examples of startups that went bust.

Think you got a great app idea? No pressure.

[source:businessinsider]