Ah, Zilingo. They basically took over the news for weeks after claims of alleged "financial irregularities" led to their co-founder and CEO, Ankiti Bose, getting suspended in April last year.

• After the month-long suspension, she was fired.
• Ankiti also left the company's board, and the company's COO also quit — leaving co-founder Dhruv Kapoor the last man standing.

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🥶 Stay alive or die trying

It's been months since then, and we may finally have an answer about whether Zilingo's fate is to stay alive or die trying.

• In June last year, the company's board approved the payments to Zilingo's creditors and weighed options about liquidation or a buyout.
• The co-founders also explored a management buyout offer to save Zilingo that didn't pan out.

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🤷🏻‍♀️ So what now?

They're set to enter liquidation. (Yup, they're selling off their assets and shutting down.)

• Zilingo creditors Varde Partners and Indies Capital Partners found a buyer for some of Zilingo's assets.

Who's the buyer? We hear that the buyer may have been Zurich-based e-commerce management software provider Buyogo AG bought Zilingo's tech assets and nCinga Innovations (which Zilingo acquired in 2019).

End of an era. Zilingo was one of SEA's hottest startups and was looking to hit unicorn status before the meltdown, with CEO Ankiti often taking the stage at events.

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🤔 And the dawn of a new age?

Sequoia, one of Zilingo's largest shareholders, is now considering auditing South and Southeast Asian investments.

• Portfolio companies in SEA and South Asia, like Trell, Zilingo and GoMechanic have had financial irregularities.

Taking steps. They'll be improving monitoring, like working with Ernst & Young on audits, increasing budgets to help companies put governance guardrails in place, changing up their due diligence, and being more selective with company board seats.