May 1, 2023

Zilingo co-founder and CEO, Ankiti Bose. Photo: Zilingo 28 April, 2023 Burda Principal Investments is considering legal action against Ankiti Bose, the former CEO of Zilingo, the Financial Express reported on Thursday. The media report cited a statement by Burda Principal Investments that “significant irregularities in reporting to investors” were to be blamed for Zilingo’s downfall. It added that Burda is the “second investor” to have clarified that the action against the former Zilingo founder was “a joint decision made by all investors and not led by a single investor as claimed by her”. It added that Temasek Holdings has also backed legal action against Bose. “We are…in support of the board’s investigation into the complaint as a part of good governance to safeguard the interests of the company,” said Temasek to Financial Express. DealStreetAsia has reached out to Burda Principal Investments but has not received a reply. The development comes shortly after Indian startup news site Inc42 published a report about Bose’s alleged financial mismanagement while helming Zilingo. Bose has also separately sued Indian angel investor Mahesh Murty for defamation to the tune of $100 million over an article he published including with descriptive words of a lady who “ran a popular fashion portal and took Sequoia’s money”. Zilingo was last reported by DealStreetAsia to have reached a settlement with its debtors earlier this year, after agreeing to spin off its technology, product and intellectual property (IP) units to Swiss startup Buyogo. This came shortly after Zilingo appointed EY as provisional liquidator to wind up the firm in January. Zilingo, once hailed as a rising star from Southeast Asia, had raised over $310 million in venture money from institutional investors such as Sequoia Capital India, Temasek Holdings, and Burda Principal Investments. Sequoia Capital India, in particular, has been under the spotlight with a series of corporate governance issues related to its portfolio firms including BharatPe, Trell, and Zetwerk. More recently, Indian car service and repair company GoMechanic joined the list, making headlines for allegedly inflating its revenues .