NestAway Cofounder Sues Tiger Global, Chiratae Over Alleged Fraud

More than a year after NestAway was sold in a fire sale, the home rental platform’s cofounder and former CEO Amarendra Sahu has accused the company’s investors and fellow cofounders of committing fraud during the deal. 

Sahu has filed a criminal case against the home rental platform’s investors Tiger Global, Goldman Sachs, Chiratae Ventures, as well as cofounders Jitendra Jagadev and Smruti Parida, in connection with the transaction. Parida left NestAway in 2019.

The development was first reported by The Arc.

Acting on Sahu’s complaint, police officials in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar registered a first information report (FIR) on September 23, 2024. The FIR cites multiple sections of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code, including 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery with intent to cheat), 471 (using forged documents), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 120B (criminal conspiracy). 

Sahu has alleged that his signature was fraudulently used to sell NestAway to Aurum PropTech for INR 90 Cr on June 28, 2023 even though he resigned nine days earlier as the company’s director. 

Inc42 has reached out to Sahu, Jagadev, Goldman Sachs, Tiger Global and Chiratae Ventures for comments on the development. The story will be updated on receiving their responses. 

Notably, Sahu’s complaint also claims that the lead investors “persuaded” him to sell his 5% stake in lieu of an additional payment of INR 11.72 Cr. He claims that he never received the money. 

Meanwhile, Sahu also accused fellow cofounder and current CEO Jitendra Jagadev of colluding with investors to undermine him during the sale process and conducting parallel negotiations.

Jagadev, as per a court filing, denied the allegations, saying that similar claims were dismissed by NCLT Bengaluru. The submissions were part of a petition filed by Jagadev, which was heard by the Orissa High Court (HC) on December 19, 2024. In addition, some of the investors and cofounders have also approached the HC for relief. 

While Chiratae’s plea for quashing the FIR was heard on December 10, Goldman Sachs’ petition was heard by the HC on December 13. The joint plea by the two investors was heard by the court later on December 18. 

The Orissa High Court is set to hear the case on January 9, 2025. As of now, the court has ordered the investigative officer to prepare a report on the case as most of the documents have been presented before the court.

“This Court at this stage shall not venture into the merits of the case, rather leave it to the investigating agency to investigate the entire allegations in the right prospective,” the court said.

NestAway, founded in January 2015 by Sahu, Jagadev, Parida, and Deepak Dhar, is an online home rental marketplace. The platform transforms unfurnished homes into managed apartments rented to pre-verified tenants.

Aurum PropTech injected INR 30 Cr in NestAway after its acquisition to stabilise the business. Prior to the acquisition, NestAway had raised $110 Mn from investors such as Tiger Global, UC-RNT Fund, Flipkart, and Goldman Sachs. It was last valued at $220 Mn in 2019.