Gilingo borrowers repay entire loans, hire start-up financial advisors

Borrowers of fashion technology startup Jillingo have decided to repay their entire loan, leading the Singapore-based company to hire a financial advisor to evaluate the options, its board said Friday.

Jillingor’s board said in a statement to Reuters that “due to Jillingor’s failure to meet its previous obligations under the loan agreement, the company’s creditors have decided to expedite the repayment of the entire loan.”

The board fired its CEO and co-founder Ankit Bose in March in support of large investors, awaiting an independent agency investigation into their appointment.

Supported by investors, including Sequoia Capital India and Singapore-based investor Temasek, seven-year-old Jillingo announced in April an investigation into what he described as a “matter” and what sources said meant the company’s accounts.

The Jillingo Board said in a statement on Friday that it was “approaching the finalization of the investigation into the allegations against Jilingo CEO Ankiti Bose.”

A Bose lawyer said he declined to comment on his dismissal or the investigation.

Zilingo works with thousands of garment factories and merchants in South Asia and Southeast Asia, connecting them to retailers worldwide, and was valued at about $ 1 billion in its final funding round in 2019, according to sources familiar with the situation.

The company was founded in 2015 by Bose and Chief Technology Officer Dhruv Kapoor as a Southeast Asia-centric e-commerce firm and has since transformed into a global supply chain enabler for the highly fragmented apparel sector.

It provides supply, financing and other services to factories and traders.