Last month, we covered how Zilingo's co-founder and CEO, Ankiti Bose, was suspended. (Yup, it was a shocker.) The fashion and e-commerce startup was ready to raise a new $150–$200M funding round to push it to unicorn status.

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💥  Breaking the news

On April 12, Ankiti was suspended. Turns out, the fundraising process brought eyes to Zilingo's financials.

• Uh-oh. Claims about discrepancies in the company's accounting records and mismanagement were raised— mainly around the startup's transactions and revenue across their platform.
• Regulators stated that Zilingo hasn't filed annual financial statements since 2019.

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🧙🏻 Witch hunt?

Ankiti called it a witch hunt, raising her own points and hiring an attorney. She also mentions the complaints were procured by "invalid and defective means."

• She also added that the investigation is "unfair and is lacking in due process," and that she's been suspended "without proper and reasonable cause."
• She also claims that these decisions and practices were "well known by senior managers and directors."

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⬇️  Stepping down

Sequoia India's Shailendra Singh stepped down from Zilingo's board earlier in April, shortly after the questions about Zilingo's accounting popped up. He was reportedly replaced by Sandeep Kher, Director and Head of Portfolio Finance at Sequoia India.

Not the first. Before Shailendra, Temasek's Xu Wei Yang and Burda Principal Investments' Albert Shyy also left Zilingo's board.

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🤔  Weighing options

Word on the street is that Ankiti's looking to take back control by buying out a majority stake in Zilingo from current shareholders. It seems tricky since she'd need to convince the board to side with her to get it done.

New face? There are also talks that Ankiti may be replaced by an interim CEO or completely by new leadership, though nothing's been confirmed.

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❌  Not a sole decision

Zilingo spoke up the other day to iron out some details, saying that the decision to suspend Ankiti was made by the board (not a single investor). They've also said that there have been "recent leaks of untrue information to the media."

No one guilty...yet Investigations are ongoing, but according to Zilingo, no one has been found guilty yet.

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😱  Another one bites the dust?

Yesterday, we heard that Zilingo's global head for PR and comms, Naushaba Salahuddin, was reportedly suspended. She also leads Zilingo's prevention of sexual harassment committee.

• According to documents, the decision was made because of emails to various third parties that weren't in the company's best interest.
• She lost access to her Zilingo emails on April 27, but it's unconfirmed whether her employment is also suspended.

What she says. Salahuddin's got a different claim. She says she lost access to her emails after questioning a media statement made by a "Zilingo rep" on behalf of the board since Zilingo's comms team wasn't informed or consulted.

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✌🏼 And that's a wrap

We know it's a rollercoaster ride out here. With Ankiti's suspension ending tomorrow, we hope to understand the truth soon— and we're sure you are too.