Zilingo Case: How Much Debt Will Ankiti Bose Have To Repay?

Zilingo’s co-founder and CEO Ankiti Bose was recently suspended from her position at the B2B e-commerce start-up. She is recompensing the company’s entire outstanding debt worth $40 million. People aware of the discussions said that this would provide her with an option to gain more equity in the firm.

In a report by the Financial Express, according to an investor of a venture debt firm based in Asia, Bose’s endeavour to acquire more shares in the company could be met with pushback from the board, and eventually lead to a legal tussle if the warrants were to be sold to her.

Zilingo Debt Ankiti Bose

Reportedly, Bose had already reached out to Varde Partners and Indies Capital with a term sheet to pay back the entire pending loan amount. While Varde and Indies together provided a loan of $40 million to Zilingo under Ankiti’s leadership in July 2021, it is only valid till July 2023.

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With inputs from the Financial Express, one of the people aware of the talks between Bose and the debt providers said, “The company was supposed to make repayments on a 90-day cycle, however, after Bose’s suspension in April, the company missed the repayment which was due in the same month.”

A second person added that both Varde and Indies own warrants on the loan. It is transferable to any buyer under the earlier terms signed between Zilingo and the debt providers. 

With inputs from The Economic Times, Zilingo's board said in a statement to Reuters, "Due to Zilingo's failure to fulfill prior obligations under the loan agreement, the company's lenders have made the decision to accelerate the repayment of the entire loan."

According to reports, Zilingo works with thousands of garment factories and merchants in South Asia and Southeast Asia. It connects them to retailers worldwide and was valued at nearly $1 billion in its last funding round in 2019, as per sources familiar with the situation.

Founded in 2015 by Bose and chief technology officer Dhruv Kapoor as a Southeast Asia focused e-commerce firm, the company was then transformed into a global supply chain enabler for the highly fragmented apparel sector. It provides logistics, financing and other services to factories and merchants.