Key Highlights :
Ankiti Bose, the former CEO and co-founder of fashion e-commerce startup Zilingo, has filed an ₹820 crore defamation suit against high-profile angel investor Mahesh Murthy. The suit was filed in the Bombay High Court through law firm Singhania and Co LLP. The suit alleges that the article authored by Murthy in the March issue of Outlook Business magazine is a “continuation of the three-year-old vendetta” against Bose.
In the article titled, “From Venture Capital to Victim Capital”, Murthy had taken a strong jibe at various startup founders without naming anyone and held them responsible for the current drop in funding in the country. Following the filing of the suit, Murthy shared two paragraphs of the article on Twitter and indirectly targeted Bose. The paragraphs read, “Founders take out money. Some do it legally, and some do not so legally. In my opinion, in either case, taking oodles of money from your company while it is unprofitable is deeply unethical to the investors who funded you. Some who did it illegally are well-known: One lady ran a popular fashion portal and took Sequoia’s money. She got her firm to pay her lawyer ₹ 70 crore as fees and it is rumoured got a lot of that amount directly back to herself as a cut. She also got her firm to pay a public relations agency ₹ 10 crore a year to have her profile appear as a glamorous CEO type, jetting in business class from one fashion show to another. All this happened while her start-up failed to earn even rs 10 crore of gross income on farcically inflated revenues of ₹ 300 crore while it was valued at over ₹ 8,000 crore”.
In her statement, Bose said that Murthy's article comprises a "litany of lies, distortions, and venomous claims". Bose also said that the malicious media campaign launched against her has harmed her reputation, caused significant financial losses, and is entirely based on fiction, with not a shred of evidence against her. Bose further added that Murthy's piece only goes to reinforce the sexist attitude and gossipy innuendo that hold back more women founders from achieving their true potential.
The controversy around Ankiti Bose and Zilingo began in April 2022 when Bose was suspended by Zilingo following a series of allegations about impropriety raised by anonymous whistleblowers. Alleged financial irregularities were discovered during a due diligence process for a new funding round at Bose's account. In June 2022, Bose resigned from directorships at holding company Zilingo Pte Ltd as well as its subsidiaries. In January this year, Zilingo sold off its technology assets and acquired the entity Ncinga Innovations to Zurich-based e-commerce management software company Buyogo AG. EY Corporate Services Pte was appointed by Zilingo as provisional liquidator.
The defamation suit filed by Ankiti Bose against Mahesh Murthy has sparked a debate in the Indian startup ecosystem. While Murthy has maintained that the article does not refer to Bose, Bose's allegations of a "three-year-old vendetta" and Murthy's indirect targeting of her on Twitter have raised many questions. It remains to be seen how the Bombay High Court will rule in this case.