Technology Slump Refocuses Startups on Capital Discipline

Slumping valuations for technology companies are making managers at emerging-markets startups direct their attention to capital discipline after years of booming investments and rising valuations that shunted aside cash concerns, according to venture-capital fund managers from areas such as Africa, Asia and Latin America.

“In the last five years, the environment that basically has trained or educated [startup founders] on the ground was not the right environment,” said Kuo-Yi Lim, a co-founder and managing partner at Southeast Asia-focused Monk’s Hill Ventures. Mr. Lim and other emerging-markets fund managers spoke during a Global Private Capital Association conference in New York this week.