Ankiti Bose is the co-founder and CEO of Zilingo, an e-commerce fashion website. She is the first Asian woman to run a startup in Asia with a value of almost $1 billion.
Wiki/Biography
Ankiti was born in 1992 (age 30 years; as of 2022), in Mumbai. She did her schooling at Podar School in Mumbai. She attended St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai and completed her graduation in economics and mathematics.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 5″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Dark Brown
Family
Ankiti’s father works as an engineer in an oil company in Mumbai. Her mother used to work as a lecturer at a University. Ankiti is the only child of her parents.
Career
After completing her college, Ankiti joined McKinsey & Company in Bangalore as a management consultant, where she worked from 2012 to 2014. Later in 2014, she joined Sequoia Capital in Bangalore as an investment analyst. She was on a Bangkok trip with her colleagues when she visited the Chatuchak Market and noticed that local shops had no online presence. Ankiti said in an interview,
We were in this market called Chatuchak. With more than 15,000 stalls and some 11,500 independent merchants, it is the largest weekend market in the world. I was like ‘wow, this stuff should be online!’ But they just couldn’t sell online, they didn’t know how to. That was the inception.”
In 2014, she met Dhruv Kapoor, an IIT graduate in a party. Dhruv was working as a software engineer at gaming studio Kiwi Inc in Bangalore. They both decided to start up their own venture, and after a few months, both left their job. Ankiti and Dhruv invested their savings and raised funds from investors to start their own company ‘Zilingo’ in 2015. In almost four years, Zilingo became the unicorn business (a start-up valued at $1 billion or more). Zilingo has its headquarters in Singapore, which is managed by the CEO, Ankiti Kapoor, and its technical office is in Bangalore, managed by the Chief Technology Officer, Dhruv Kapoor.
Ankiti Bose with Dhruv Kapoor
Controversy
In May 2022, Ankiti Bose was fired by Zilingo following an independent forensic audit into complaints of serious financial irregularities. The company had appointed Kroll and Deloitte for the forensic audit to scrutinize the complaints received against her by the company. Following her termination, she took to her Instagram account to share a post. She wrote,
I have been suspended for the last 51 days on the basis of an anonymous whistle-blower complaint, and today I am informed that my employment has been terminated inter alia on grounds of ‘insubordination’.”
She further wrote,
I have neither seen the Kroll nor Deloitte reports and not been given sufficient time to produce any documents requested by them. Any report that comes out post my termination would be vitiated as it seems to be instructed by conflicted parties, and we will pursue our rights against this witch-hunt to the full extent of the law. I will be speaking on record shortly with more details about the conflicts of interest in the manner this process was run.”
Net Worth
The net worth of ‘Zilingo’ is USD 970 million (approx).
Facts/Trivia
- Ankiti became the first Indian woman to co-found a unicorn business (a start-up valued at $1 billion or more).
- In 2018, Ankiti and Dhruv were listed in the renowned American magazine ‘Forbes’ among the most influential young people in business aged under 30.
- In 2019, Ankiti was listed in Forbes as the most influential and inspiring young people in business under the age of 40.