Ankiti Bose (born 1992) is the co-founder of e-commerce start-up Zilingo. She has been featured in Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 list in 2018 as well as in Fortune's 40 Under 40 along with Bloomberg 50 in 2019.[1] On 31 March 2022, she was suspended as CEO after an attempt to raise capital raised questions about Zilingo's accounting practices, according to Bloomberg.[2] On 20 May 2022 Bose was fired from Zilingo.[3][4]
Bose started her career working at McKinsey & Company and Sequoia CapitalinBangalore.[7] After a trip to the Chatuchak Weekend Market[8] Bose noticed that fashion markets in Southeast Asia had immense room for penetration and growth.[6] The market includes over 11,000 independent merchants lacking an online presence.[6] Whilst there was investment in improving access to the internet, Bose recognized that retailers were not trained in financing, scaling-up, website design, and procurement nor well equipped to compete with large global players.[7]
In 2015, Bose left her position as an investment analyst at Sequoia Capital to launch her own company, Zilingo.[9] Bose was twenty three when she founded Zilingo.[10] She moved to Singapore in 2016, where she developed the software and supply chain solutions.[11]
In 2019, Zilingo raised $226 million in Series D fundraising, resulting in a $970 million market value.[12][13] As of 2019, it had over seven million active users leveraging the global platform.[7]
The China–United States trade war resulted in United States retailers leaving China, which allowed Zilingo to expand into America.[13] She has worked to source Indian fabrics for Californian factories as well as opening offices on the West Coast and East Coast.[13]AtZilingo, Bose supported a program to train women in Indonesia to create clothing, recognising that in Indonesia almost 40% of women leave the workforce after they get married.[13][14]Zilingo set up a coaching programme to support leaders across the company.[13]
In March 2022, Bose was suspended, from Zilingo with allegations of financial misrepresentation and mismanagement, pending an investigation. Among other allegations, shareholders questioned her S$50,000 per month salary which according to her contract five years ago was S$8,500. Her management style of using intimidation to extract compliance in her daily working in Zilingo was also called into question.[15]
India
