Evaluating only SupplyLens’s profile at its peak — without knowing the outcome — the model ranked Competition as the #1 likely cause. Documented cause: Platform dependency.
Key Events Timeline
FOUNDING
Arjun Mehta and Shreya Kapoor founded SupplyLens in Bengaluru targeting Indian textile and pharma exporters.
FUNDING
$6.8M Series A raised from Sequoia Capital India Surge to expand customs data integration and analytics.
REGULATORY ACTION
India's CBIC restructured customs data APIs, breaking SupplyLens core functionality for 6 weeks, triggering client churn.
SHUTDOWN
Company shut down after 40% Q1 2023 client churn and failed pivot to domestic retail supply chains; 31 jobs lost.
Full Analysis
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Documented cause
SupplyLens, founded in Bengaluru by Arjun Mehta and Shreya Kapoor in 2020, raised $6.8M to provide supply chain visibility and risk scoring for Indian textile and pharmaceutical exporters. The platform relied heavily on government customs data APIs that were restructured by India's CBIC in November 2022, breaking core functionality for 6 weeks. Client churn hit 40% in Q1 2023. The founders attempted a pivot to domestic retail supply chains but lacked capital. The company shut down in November 2023 with 31 employees affected.
Lesson
“Never architect core product functionality on single-source government API dependencies without fallback data sources.”