Gabriel Budi Sutrisno · · 2 min readZilingo CEO Ankiti Bose weighs options to ‘gain back control’: report
Zilingo co-founder and CEO Ankiti Bose has been exploring talks with new investors to buy out a majority stake of the Singapore-based fashion company, including the 25% equity owned by Sequoia Capital, reported Financial Express.
Zilingo co-founder and CEO Ankiti Bose / Photo credit: Zilingo
The buyback, however, can only be executed if Bose can convince the board to side with her, a board observer close to the matter told Financial Express.
This comes as the board of Zilingo is set to meet to decide the fate of the company’s leadership changes. Bose was suspended by the board after alleged discrepancies in the company’s accounting were found.
Sequoia first invested in Zilingo in its US$1.9 million seed funding in 2015, when it acquired a 20% equity in the company. It later acquired another 5% across multiple rounds.
The VC firm also reportedly has some control over leadership appointments in the shareholder’s agreement, including those of the current CFO Ramesh Bafna, managing director Shailendra Singh, and other key figures. The Economic Times reported that Bafna could be the frontrunner to become Zilingo’s new CEO.
See also: Zilingo grew big, lost big from 2018 to 2019
The allegations against Bose started during a due diligence process for a new US$200 million funding round led by Goldman Sachs Group, which has now been paused. The CEO has called the suspension a “witch hunt” and denied all the claims made against her.
Editing by Miguel Cordon and Lorenzo Kyle Subido
(And yes, we’re serious about ethics and transparency. More information here.)
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