COO Aadi Vaidya Quits Zilingo As Future Remains Uncertain

In yet another high profile exit at beleaguered fashion ecommerce startup Zilingo, the company’s chief operating officer (COO) Aadi Vaidya has resigned amid the ongoing crisis at Zilingo.

Announcing his exit on Twitter, Vaidya said, “After 7 years at my first start up, I have decided to move on. Over the next few weeks, I will be meeting interesting people, reading, traveling and re-prioritizing. It’s been one hell of a ride and now, over to the next adventure!”

Vaidya’s exit comes amid the ongoing crisis at Zilingo, which has already seen the ousting of cofounder and former CEO Ankiti Bose after allegations of financial impropriety were investigated by the board and investors.

“I worked in 8 countries, living full time in 3 of them, building with 500+ teammates, learning from local partners and lately riding through Covid. It was an extraordinary learning that can’t be summed in [sic] words. I’m thankful to every one [sic] who helped me grow in this process,” he added.

Vaidya is the latest high-level departure at Zilingo after Bose was dismissed in May and then resigned from the board. Besides this, chief financial officer (CFO) Ramesh Bafna had also stepped down in May, just two months after joining the startup, as exclusively reported by Inc42. Further, the company’s head of PR and communications Naushaba Salahuddin had also quit.

Vaidya, who owns 2% stake in Zilingo, was seen as one of the key leaders in the company amid the ongoing crisis. He was said to be handling operations for the company along with cofounder and CTO Dhruv Kapoor after the suspension and subsequent dismissal of Bose.

Bose and Kapoor each own just over 8.5% stake in the company.

How Will The Zilingo Crisis Unfold?

The Zilingo crisis, related to revenue recognition, unplanned expansion into new markets and high cash burn, is said to have been exacerbated by a fallout between founders Bose and Kapoor, as we had reported at the height of the crisis in April 2022.

However, the founders had seemingly come to an agreement in the wake of Bose’s suspension on what direction to take the company in. While lead investor Sequoia and other backers were said to be in favour of a liquidation of Zilingo in the aftermath of the allegations and the consequent business impact, the two founders had put aside their differences and had proposed a management buyout.

Soon after that buyout proposal was floated to the board, former CEO Bose resigned from all directorship positions at Zilingo. The resignation came at a time when the Singapore-based fashion startup was in discussions with shareholders over the management buyout offer as well as potential liquidation of the company’s assets to pay off creditors.

Kapoor had proposed a management buyout offer to shareholders which would involve liquidation of Zilingo’s assets and the formation of a new company. The proposal was backed by Bose and the duo had also claimed that they had received commitments from investors to back the new project to the tune of $8 Mn.

It is not yet known whether Kapoor and the other board members have made any headway when it comes to the potential liquidation or the management buyout offer. Zilingo did not respond to queries about the status of these discussions.

The company also did not comment on who will be in charge of operations post the exit of Vaidya. As of now, Kapoor remains in charge of day-to-day operations on the product and tech side, but there’s no clarity on who is handling the CEO’s responsibilities.