New Delhi: Ankiti Bosewho was fired last week as CEO of a Singapore startup Temptation Pte says she will continue to struggle to clear her name.
The fashion e-commerce platform terminated her employment after investigating claims of “serious financial irregularities” and said it “reserves the right to take appropriate legal action.” According to people familiar with the matter, the investigation included questions about Zilingo’s accounting practices and payments to multiple service providers of more than $7 million that were signed by them without the knowledge of senior executives.
In two interviews before and after his dismissal, Bose denied wrongdoing and gave detailed feedback on key points of the investigation. She said that, in the end, the company fired her for her lack of cooperation in the investigation, rather than actual financial irregularities. He is determined to defend his reputation.
“There hasn’t been a single payment by Zilingo that didn’t have the proper documentation or was not known to either the finance, technology or operations teams,” said Bose, a former consultant at McKinsey & Co. , “I feel like my child has been taken away from me without giving me a proper explanation or a chance to fight for his back. I am sad and fighting for myself together.”
Once a shining example of the potential of tech startups in Southeast Asia, Zilingo ran into trouble this year following complaints from internal whistleblowers, triggering a tussle between Bose and his longtime backers. The board suspended him on March 31 and hired the investigative firm Kroll Inc. to investigate the complaints. Now the very existence of Zilingo is in question.
Bose co-founded Jilingo with Dhruv Kapoor in 2015 after a visit to Chatuchak Market in Bangkok, where 15,000 merchants sell goods from across Thailand. Their aim was to build a technology platform to help consumers in Southeast Asia sell to those types of small merchants. In 2018, they began to transform themselves into a business-to-business platform to reduce the high cash burn of working with consumers.
Zilingo’s pitch that it will help digitize the fashion industry’s age-old supply chain will help attract venture backers including Sequoia Capital India and Temasek Holdings Pte. It raised $226 million at a valuation of $970 million in 2019, when Bose was just 27. But with the pressure to grow rapidly, Zilingo found itself dealing with thousands of vendors and merchants from nine countries, from Sri Lanka to Indonesia. This complexity eroded the young company’s ability to track revenue and other financial data.
millions in payments
Zilingo and its board have not publicly detailed their allegations against Bose. The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment, beyond earlier public statements.
“Following an investigation led by an independent forensic firm, which was commissioned to look into complaints of serious financial irregularities, the company has decided to terminate the employment of Ms. Ankiti Bose with cause, and take appropriate legal action. reserves the right to do so,” the company said. on 20 May. Social media campaigns and leaked information have caused “irreparable harm to the Company, the Board, employees and investors.”
People familiar with the Bose investigation said one of the most serious allegations involved payments to service providers that the CEO signed off without the knowledge of other senior managers. The payments went to about five information technology and consulting firms during the two-year period involved in the Kroll investigation, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details of the inquiries are private. People said these firms received monthly or one-time payments totaling millions of dollars from Zilingo over that period, while it was not clear what services they provided.
Bose said that all the payments are legitimate and they were certainly not made to benefit him personally. He said it was possible that other senior managers were not aware of the payment, although there was nothing nefarious in it.
“I’m 100% certain there’s nothing wrong with the way I get paid,” she said. “I have heard many individuals in the company claim that they are not aware of the various business relationships. While I find this strange to believe, because the company has so many jurisdictions and so many parts, it is possible that they Were not officially aware.”
Bose said he has not been able to examine internal documents to clarify what the payments were after his suspension, even after requesting access to Kroll’s supervision. She has also not been able to get in touch with employees or outside parties who may be able to clear her name.
“I was not given sufficient access to provide documents that would exonerate me,” she said. “What I ask our shareholders and stakeholders to do is not to believe that I did not attempt to answer these questions.”
Kroll did not respond to a request for comment.
While Kroll investigators conducted forensic audits to help identify potential financial irregularities, their work did not include whether there were links between the Zilingo payments and the CEO, people familiar with said. He said such an act would require access to bank accounts, which was outside the scope of forensic investigation.
Another key area about which Bose says Kroll officials have asked about the discrepancy in revenue figures listed in documents made available to current and potential investors. The idea that Zilingo may have used different sets of financial data has raised fears among investors that the startup may be increasing the numbers or misleading backers.
Bose says such differences are the result of many countries trying to adhere to complex accounting standards. For example, in some cases sales made by certain merchants on the platform were counted as Zilingo’s own revenue — even though such transactions would normally be considered gross merchandise value or GMV under traditional accounting rules. will be classified as Here, Bose said that in some countries the rules compelled him.
He said in the interview, citing India, Indonesia and Bangladesh, “About 12% or 13% of our GMV has historically been recorded as revenue due to various regulatory requirements when goods are exported from many Asian countries.” Is.” Example. “We’ve tried to work around it to minimize its impact between fiscal ’21 and ’22.”
A related issue is the timing of some transactions. Admittedly, Zilingo should only book revenue when goods are shipped, but Bose said there is sometimes a 30- to 90-day lag between when revenue is calculated and when sales are dispatched. That too many times resulted in two sets of numbers, she said.
Independent accounting experts are hesitant to make a definitive decision without examining Zilingo’s books, but at least one questioned its logic.
Mak Yuen Teen, an accounting and governance specialist at the National University of Singapore Business School, called it “not reliable” because most countries, including those he cited, follow global accounting standards. “Counting GMV as revenue is a significant risk for startups because their performance is often assessed on the basis of revenue.”
Zilingo’s accounting methods for discounts and incentives also had an impact on the books. The company has used aggressive methods to recognize revenue, but Bose says the calculation is industry standard practice and all its investors were fully aware of it. She emphasized during hours of discussion that she started Zilingo at the age of 23 and relied on the finance department to solve such quantitative questions.
“All these matters are well understood by all investors,” Bose had earlier said in the interview. “Unless I am a chartered accountant, I cannot touch books, let alone cook books.”
absentee audit
The lack of audited data adds to the uncertainty at Zilingo. Public records in Singapore show that it has not recorded its fiscal 2020 or 2021 financial results, even though it is a basic regulatory requirement for all businesses registered in the city-state.
Bose says the delay in the FY 2020 audit results was due to efforts to fix an issue involving an Indonesian entity that it missed in FY 2019. He says it is not unusual for startups in Singapore and Southeast Asia to miss such filing deadlines. In Singapore, companies that miss their deadline to file annual financial statements are fined S$600 ($437), a relatively small amount.
Zilingo declined to comment. One venture capitalist, who asked not to be identified because of the controversy surrounding the issue, said it is not unusual for startups to file late.
In Zilingo’s case, the failure to file contributed to the challenges. After Covid-19 plunged the company’s revenue, it did two rounds of financing to fund operations. One was a $25 million convertible note at the end of 2020 from Sequoia and state-owned investors EDBI and Temasek, while the other was a roughly $40 million mezzanine loan facility in mid-2021 from Verde Partners and Indies Capital Partners, the company’s acquirer. According to the people. Finance, who asked not to be identified as the details were confidential.
In March 2022, Verde and Indies told the firm that it was in default of the loan agreement, citing a wide range of documents it had received, including audited filings from fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2021, ordering it to stop drawing on funds. Gave. By May, he had withdrawn the loan, putting the company in a precarious financial position with little cash to continue operating. The board said on May 13 that it had appointed an independent financial advisor to explore alternatives to Zilingo.
‘It’s not about the money’
Bose argued that the investigation against him was an unfair attempt to blame him for the company’s struggles. She said that despite four interviews with Kroll, she has yet to see a full report of the allegations against her.
She said that she was asked to attend another meeting on May 19 but requested to postpone it till next week as she was shifting her family. The next day, he was fired with a termination letter, he said, citing a variety of reasons including disobedience, neglect, failure to produce relevant documents and refusal to comply with instructions.
“I want the opportunity to talk about each and every one of the allegations,” she said. “I was denied the opportunity, time and access to do so.”
Bose, who is now 30, told that she hopes to have a substantial professional future, ideally working on startups with ambitious plans for the tech industry.
“I am not going to live with a stain on my reputation and my career,” Bose said. “It’s not about the money – it’s about my career, it’s about my reputation, it’s about my life, it’s about my parents.”
The fashion e-commerce platform terminated her employment after investigating claims of “serious financial irregularities” and said it “reserves the right to take appropriate legal action.” According to people familiar with the matter, the investigation included questions about Zilingo’s accounting practices and payments to multiple service providers of more than $7 million that were signed by them without the knowledge of senior executives.
In two interviews before and after his dismissal, Bose denied wrongdoing and gave detailed feedback on key points of the investigation. She said that, in the end, the company fired her for her lack of cooperation in the investigation, rather than actual financial irregularities. He is determined to defend his reputation.
“There hasn’t been a single payment by Zilingo that didn’t have the proper documentation or was not known to either the finance, technology or operations teams,” said Bose, a former consultant at McKinsey & Co. , “I feel like my child has been taken away from me without giving me a proper explanation or a chance to fight for his back. I am sad and fighting for myself together.”
Once a shining example of the potential of tech startups in Southeast Asia, Zilingo ran into trouble this year following complaints from internal whistleblowers, triggering a tussle between Bose and his longtime backers. The board suspended him on March 31 and hired the investigative firm Kroll Inc. to investigate the complaints. Now the very existence of Zilingo is in question.
Bose co-founded Jilingo with Dhruv Kapoor in 2015 after a visit to Chatuchak Market in Bangkok, where 15,000 merchants sell goods from across Thailand. Their aim was to build a technology platform to help consumers in Southeast Asia sell to those types of small merchants. In 2018, they began to transform themselves into a business-to-business platform to reduce the high cash burn of working with consumers.
Zilingo’s pitch that it will help digitize the fashion industry’s age-old supply chain will help attract venture backers including Sequoia Capital India and Temasek Holdings Pte. It raised $226 million at a valuation of $970 million in 2019, when Bose was just 27. But with the pressure to grow rapidly, Zilingo found itself dealing with thousands of vendors and merchants from nine countries, from Sri Lanka to Indonesia. This complexity eroded the young company’s ability to track revenue and other financial data.
millions in payments
Zilingo and its board have not publicly detailed their allegations against Bose. The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment, beyond earlier public statements.
“Following an investigation led by an independent forensic firm, which was commissioned to look into complaints of serious financial irregularities, the company has decided to terminate the employment of Ms. Ankiti Bose with cause, and take appropriate legal action. reserves the right to do so,” the company said. on 20 May. Social media campaigns and leaked information have caused “irreparable harm to the Company, the Board, employees and investors.”
People familiar with the Bose investigation said one of the most serious allegations involved payments to service providers that the CEO signed off without the knowledge of other senior managers. The payments went to about five information technology and consulting firms during the two-year period involved in the Kroll investigation, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details of the inquiries are private. People said these firms received monthly or one-time payments totaling millions of dollars from Zilingo over that period, while it was not clear what services they provided.
Bose said that all the payments are legitimate and they were certainly not made to benefit him personally. He said it was possible that other senior managers were not aware of the payment, although there was nothing nefarious in it.
“I’m 100% certain there’s nothing wrong with the way I get paid,” she said. “I have heard many individuals in the company claim that they are not aware of the various business relationships. While I find this strange to believe, because the company has so many jurisdictions and so many parts, it is possible that they Were not officially aware.”
Bose said he has not been able to examine internal documents to clarify what the payments were after his suspension, even after requesting access to Kroll’s supervision. She has also not been able to get in touch with employees or outside parties who may be able to clear her name.
“I was not given sufficient access to provide documents that would exonerate me,” she said. “What I ask our shareholders and stakeholders to do is not to believe that I did not attempt to answer these questions.”
Kroll did not respond to a request for comment.
While Kroll investigators conducted forensic audits to help identify potential financial irregularities, their work did not include whether there were links between the Zilingo payments and the CEO, people familiar with said. He said such an act would require access to bank accounts, which was outside the scope of forensic investigation.
Another key area about which Bose says Kroll officials have asked about the discrepancy in revenue figures listed in documents made available to current and potential investors. The idea that Zilingo may have used different sets of financial data has raised fears among investors that the startup may be increasing the numbers or misleading backers.
Bose says such differences are the result of many countries trying to adhere to complex accounting standards. For example, in some cases sales made by certain merchants on the platform were counted as Zilingo’s own revenue — even though such transactions would normally be considered gross merchandise value or GMV under traditional accounting rules. will be classified as Here, Bose said that in some countries the rules compelled him.
He said in the interview, citing India, Indonesia and Bangladesh, “About 12% or 13% of our GMV has historically been recorded as revenue due to various regulatory requirements when goods are exported from many Asian countries.” Is.” Example. “We’ve tried to work around it to minimize its impact between fiscal ’21 and ’22.”
A related issue is the timing of some transactions. Admittedly, Zilingo should only book revenue when goods are shipped, but Bose said there is sometimes a 30- to 90-day lag between when revenue is calculated and when sales are dispatched. That too many times resulted in two sets of numbers, she said.
Independent accounting experts are hesitant to make a definitive decision without examining Zilingo’s books, but at least one questioned its logic.
Mak Yuen Teen, an accounting and governance specialist at the National University of Singapore Business School, called it “not reliable” because most countries, including those he cited, follow global accounting standards. “Counting GMV as revenue is a significant risk for startups because their performance is often assessed on the basis of revenue.”
Zilingo’s accounting methods for discounts and incentives also had an impact on the books. The company has used aggressive methods to recognize revenue, but Bose says the calculation is industry standard practice and all its investors were fully aware of it. She emphasized during hours of discussion that she started Zilingo at the age of 23 and relied on the finance department to solve such quantitative questions.
“All these matters are well understood by all investors,” Bose had earlier said in the interview. “Unless I am a chartered accountant, I cannot touch books, let alone cook books.”
absentee audit
The lack of audited data adds to the uncertainty at Zilingo. Public records in Singapore show that it has not recorded its fiscal 2020 or 2021 financial results, even though it is a basic regulatory requirement for all businesses registered in the city-state.
Bose says the delay in the FY 2020 audit results was due to efforts to fix an issue involving an Indonesian entity that it missed in FY 2019. He says it is not unusual for startups in Singapore and Southeast Asia to miss such filing deadlines. In Singapore, companies that miss their deadline to file annual financial statements are fined S$600 ($437), a relatively small amount.
Zilingo declined to comment. One venture capitalist, who asked not to be identified because of the controversy surrounding the issue, said it is not unusual for startups to file late.
In Zilingo’s case, the failure to file contributed to the challenges. After Covid-19 plunged the company’s revenue, it did two rounds of financing to fund operations. One was a $25 million convertible note at the end of 2020 from Sequoia and state-owned investors EDBI and Temasek, while the other was a roughly $40 million mezzanine loan facility in mid-2021 from Verde Partners and Indies Capital Partners, the company’s acquirer. According to the people. Finance, who asked not to be identified as the details were confidential.
In March 2022, Verde and Indies told the firm that it was in default of the loan agreement, citing a wide range of documents it had received, including audited filings from fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2021, ordering it to stop drawing on funds. Gave. By May, he had withdrawn the loan, putting the company in a precarious financial position with little cash to continue operating. The board said on May 13 that it had appointed an independent financial advisor to explore alternatives to Zilingo.
‘It’s not about the money’
Bose argued that the investigation against him was an unfair attempt to blame him for the company’s struggles. She said that despite four interviews with Kroll, she has yet to see a full report of the allegations against her.
She said that she was asked to attend another meeting on May 19 but requested to postpone it till next week as she was shifting her family. The next day, he was fired with a termination letter, he said, citing a variety of reasons including disobedience, neglect, failure to produce relevant documents and refusal to comply with instructions.
“I want the opportunity to talk about each and every one of the allegations,” she said. “I was denied the opportunity, time and access to do so.”
Bose, who is now 30, told that she hopes to have a substantial professional future, ideally working on startups with ambitious plans for the tech industry.
“I am not going to live with a stain on my reputation and my career,” Bose said. “It’s not about the money – it’s about my career, it’s about my reputation, it’s about my life, it’s about my parents.”