Zilingo debacle: Bangladeshi woman executive facing suspension, says she was discredited

Zilingo, the unicorn B2B apparel-tech startup, has shocked the startup and venture capital community in the past few weeks.

Naushaba Salahuddin. Photo: Collected

The startup, with its headquarters in Singapore, which grew in lightning speed in the last few years, is now facing some allegations: accounting fraud, lack of transparency in operation, hushing sexual harassment complaints against senior staff.

Ankiti Bose, the CEO and cofounder, has been suspended by the board although some media have cited that it was done as a "payback for filing sexual harassment complaints" against senior management staff.

Caught in the crosshairs is a senior executive who is Bangladeshi. Naushaba Salahuddin, Director and Head of Public Relations, is reportedly facing suspension.

According to an ET Prime report, Naushaba was likely suspended following her email that questioned the authenticity of statements made to several media recently: "Ankiti Bose brought certain harassment complaints to the board only after she was suspended."

For context, Ankiti Bose was suspended by the board of Zilingo recently after receiving certain complaints of a "serious nature". However, several internal sources including Ankiti herself have claimed that the actions against her were triggered after she raised harassment complaints against several senior management members.

The ET Prime report refers to email correspondence of Naushaba where she raised queries about her suspension of work communication channels i.e. email, slack etc. and where she pointed out the mistreatment she received from a board member – of Burda Principal Investments – after she enquired about the Zilingo spokesperson's comments shared with the media as the usual spokesperson is Naushaba herself.

In the email, Naushaba, former head of Comms of Daraz in Bangladesh, expressed her concern why company processes were violated.

Naushaba, who also happened to lead the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) committee of Zilingo, asserted that statements made on behalf of Zilingo were factually inaccurate, according to sources. 

When contacted, Naushaba declined to make any comment, citing that the matter is still under investigation.