Indian-Origin CEO Explains Why Singapore Fashion Start-Up Fired Her

Ankiti Bose is a co-founder of the Singapore fashion startup Zilingo.

New Delhi:

Zilingo co-founder and former CEO Ankiti Bose on Friday alleged that she has been fired from the company for insubordination, adding that she will speak shortly about the conflict of interest in which the entire process was run.

Zilingo, a Singapore-based fashion technology startup, has terminated the service of Ms Bose following an independent forensic audit into complaints of serious financial irregularities.

“I have been suspended for the last 51 days on the basis of an anonymous whistle-blower complaint, and today I am informed that my employment has been terminated inter alia on grounds of ‘insubordination’,” Ms Bose said.

Zilingo had appointed Kroll and Deloitte for forensic audit to investigate into the complaints received by the company against the former CEO.

Ms Bose said she was suspended on the basis that the company had instructed Kroll to investigate the complaint.

“I have neither seen the Kroll nor Deloitte reports and not been given sufficient time to produce any documents requested by them. Any report that comes out post my termination would be vitiated as it seems to be instructed by conflicted parties, and we will pursue our rights against this witch-hunt to the full extent of the law. I will be speaking on record shortly with more details about the conflicts of interest in the manner this process was run,” Ms Bose said.

According to sources, Ms Bose did not get along with major investor Sequoia Capital and other founders.

The source shared she had filed several harassment complaints against colleagues and a co-founder who is also a board member without disclosing the actual names against whom the complaint was filed.

The source said that Ms Bose started receiving threats from fake accounts with disappearing email accounts from foreign servers with video pertaining to sexual crimes that she submitted to the board as well.

Ms Bose had filed complaints about problems with the leadership and investors in August 2021, the source said.

Zilingo said that Ms Bose made certain harassment-related allegations only after she was suspended on March 31, and an investigation has concluded that the firm took appropriate action.

“On April 11th, after her suspension on March 31, Ankiti Bose brought to the board’s attention, for the first time, certain harassment-related issues pertaining to past time periods, which did not include any harassment complaints against investors or their nominees,” it said.

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