Zilingo, a Singapore-based B2B fashion marketplace, is embroiled in a fresh controversy. Its books are being investigated and its CEO and co-founder Ankiti Bose suspended. All this just short of the startup reaching the ambitious goal of a $1 billion valuation. Here's what happened.

Zilingo's fundraising effort and investigation

Zilingo
Zilingo

According to Bloomberg, Zilingo was trying to raise $150 million to $200 million, which would boost the celebrated startup's valuation to over $1 billion and gain the coveted unicorn tag, with the help of Goldman Sachs Group. The investors, namely Temasek and Sequoia, looked into the financial books as a part due diligence process and initiated the investigation into the company, which was prompted by the startup's auditor who raised questions about its accounting and how it recorded transactions and revenue.

CEO suspended

In wake of this, Zilingo suspended Bose, its co-founder and CEO. However, Bose denied allegations of any wrongdoing. In fact, she further alleged that her suspension was in part due to her complaints about harassment, sources close to Bloomberg revealed.

Ankiti Bose
Ankiti BoseTwitter/Ankiti Bose

Bose has also hired an attorney to represent her. She called the investigation into Zilingo's financials a "witch hunt".

Zilingo was founded in 2015 by Bose and Dhruv Kapoor. It grew into a major marketplace for wholesale buyers and sellers in the fashion industry. It has its supply base in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia. Its customers are spread across Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore with international shipping US, Europe and Australia.

Zilingo has raised more than $308 million to date. With $226 million fundraising in 2019, the startup's valuation had reached $970 million.

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