TECH DISASTERS OF 2025

As the curtain falls on 2025, the tech industry reflects on a year that promised revolutionary breakthroughs but delivered a parade of spectacular flops. From crumbling startups to overpriced gadgets to AI dreams that fizzled into nightmares, this year's disasters underscore a sobering truth: thats innovation without substance is a recipe for ruin. With venture capital tightening and consumer patience wearing thin, 2025 exposed the fragility of unchecked ambition.

- Words By: Shintu Dhang

DUNZO

2025 became the year Dunzo simply disappeared. Once valued at over $800 million and backed by Google and Reliance, India's pioneer in 10-minute deliveries shut its app and website in January without any official announcement. Employees learned of the closure through WhatsApp groups; users woke up to a dead icon on their home screens. Reliance wrote off its entire ₹1,645 crore investment, marking one of the largest startup wipeouts in Indian history. Months of unpaid driver salaries, vendor dues running into hundreds of crores, and a failed pivot to dark-store grocery left the company taking an annual hit of ₹700 crore. By March, the Dunzo name had been removed from company records; its Bengaluru offices stood empty, and its distinctive yellow branding had become a ghost on the city's streets.

NOTHING PHONE (3)