How Covid, lax controls, recklessness and a flawed founder sank Zilingo

Bose, a co-founder, lived the high life at company expense: When she wasn't showing up at Paris fashion week, she was shuttling off to New York for a meet-and-greet with a prospective client

Zilingo Pte was until recently a rising star in the world of fashion e-commerce, and its glamorous leader Ankiti Bose was a model young achiever. But in less than three months, the Singapore-based company has become a dumpster fire threatening to consume its sacked chief executive. The Indian-born co-founder says she’s still trying to figure out why she was removed from the Singapore-based startup by shareholders, including Sequoia Capital India, the largest. “I just turned 30,” she told the Straits Times in a video interview. “This is my life, this is my reputation.”

Bose is right to fear for her reputation.