Ankiti Bose, the co-founder and erstwhile CEO of fashion technology platform Zilingo, gave herself a 10x salary hike without the approval of the board, according to a report by Inc42. Between 2017 and 2019, Bose reportedly gave herself, her co-founder Dhruv Kapoor and Chief Operating Officer Aadi Vaidya a hike of 10x, 3x and 7x, respectively. Bose’s salary, according to the report, grew from SGD 5,500 in 2017 to SGD 58,900 in 2019. This development comes at a time when Bose has filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against investor Mahesh Murthy who accused her of illegally taking up money from the B2B fashion marketplace start-up.
In addition, Zilingo has begun its liquidation process, Bloomberg reported in January. As per the report, the company’s creditors Varde Partners and Indies Capital Partners found a buyer for some of its assets. Those assets have been transferred to the new owner for an undisclosed purchase price, a few sources told Bloomberg. Troubles started brewing for the business when discrepancies were observed during a due diligence process for a new funding round, thanks to a whistle-blower who raised the alarm on financial wrongdoings in which Bose was allegedly involved. The findings of the auditing process changed the gears of the company. In May last year, Zilingo fired Bose from the position of CEO over complaints of serious financial irregularities. In the statement, the company announced its decision and said, “Following an investigation led by an independent forensics firm that was commissioned to look into complaints of serious financial irregularities, the company has decided to terminate Ankiti Bose’s employment with cause and reserves the right to pursue appropriate legal action." Amidst this, Bose even sent a legal notice to the company's board levelling charges of harassment and abuse. The legal notice also revealed that Kapoor and Vaidya had not helped her when she first informed them about the harassment that she was facing. In June, Kapoor and Bose even made a pitch to the board to buyout the company but that also didn’t work out.
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