The article first appeared in The Forbes India on February 9, 2024
Uber’s strongest quarter (Q4), first annual profit since it went public in 2019, and phenomenal performance in 2023 has become the talk of the town globally. Back home, in India, a large section of venture capitalists and unicorn founders contend that Uber’s glowing report card offers a deep sense of optimism for a clutch of home-grown startups that have already hit the road to profitability and have been consistently trimming their heavy losses. But before we try to find out whether an Uber-kind of turnaround can be replicated by Indian startups, including unicorns, one must try to figure out how Uber–till 2022, it reportedly accumulated $31.5 billion in operating losses since 2014—posted profit.