Ankiti Bose

Ankiti Bose (born 1992) is an Indian former business executive who co-founded defunct e-commerce company, Zilingo. 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.^[1][2] On 20 May 2022 Bose was fired from Zilingo.^[3]

Ankiti Bose
Born	(1992-07-15) 15 July 1992 (age 33) Dehradun
Nationality	India
Alma mater	St. Xavier's College, Mumbai
Employers	Zilingo McKinsey & Company Sequoia Capital

Early life and education

Bose was born in India.^[4] She completed her schooling from Cambridge School, Kandivli, Mumbai^{[citation needed]}. She studied mathematics and economics at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai.^[5]

Career

Bose began her career working at McKinsey & Company and Sequoia Capital in Bangalore.^[6] After a trip to the Chatuchak Weekend Market^[7] Bose noticed that fashion markets in Southeast Asia had immense room for penetration and growth.^[5] The market includes over 11,000 independent merchants lacking an online presence.^[5] 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.^[6]

In 2015, Bose left her position as an investment analyst at Sequoia Capital to launch her own company, Zilingo.^[8] Bose was twenty three when she founded Zilingo.^[9] She moved to Singapore in 2016, where she developed the software and supply chain solutions.^[10]

The China–United States trade war resulted in United States retailers leaving China, which allowed Zilingo to expand into America.^[11] She has worked to source Indian fabrics for Californian factories as well as opening offices on the West Coast and East Coast.^[11] At Zilingo, 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.^[11][12] Zilingo set up a coaching programme to support leaders across the company.^[11]

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.^[13]