The Curious Case of Ankiti Bose’s New Fortune: How Did a Terminated Founder of a Collapsed Unicorn Launch an Ambitious Investment Firm?

In 2019, Ankiti Bose was the celebrated co-founder and CEO of Zilingo, a Singapore-headquartered fashion-tech startup valued at nearly US$1 billion. By early 2023, Zilingo was in liquidation, its assets sold, its employees scattered, and its investors nursing heavy losses. Yet by 2024, Bose had re-emerged as Founding Partner of Terra-Invest, a global investment platform announcing ambitions to manage US$2.5 billion in assets, with early closed transactions reportedly around US$230 million. She simultaneously chairs Terra Future Health Group, focused on AI-driven longevity and healthcare.

How did this happen? Where did the capital, credibility, and institutional backing come from to launch a new investment firm so soon after presiding over the spectacular collapse of her previous company — especially while facing serious, unresolved allegations of financial irregularities at Zilingo and, later, a GST criminal complaint in India?

This is not a story of straightforward entrepreneurial redemption. It is a story marked by opacity, aggressive pivots, and questions that remain disturbingly unanswered.

Zilingo: The Making and Unmaking of a Near-Billion-Dollar Startup

Bose co-founded Zilingo in 2015 with Dhruv Kapoor after a chance meeting in Bengaluru. She brought strategy, fundraising, and commercial experience from her time as an investment analyst at Sequoia Capital India. The company raised approximately US$308 million, expanded aggressively across Southeast Asia, and at its peak employed hundreds while shifting toward B2B fashion supply chain solutions.

As CEO, Bose would have held meaningful equity — typical for founders of venture-backed companies at this stage. Even after multiple funding rounds and dilution, a co-founder’s stake in a company valued near US$1 billion could theoretically be worth tens of millions on paper. However, paper wealth in private startups is notoriously illiquid. When Zilingo failed to raise fresh capital in 2022 amid governance concerns, that equity rapidly became worthless.

The company’s downfall was swift. In March 2022, Bose was suspended following an internal investigation triggered by fundraising due diligence. Kroll, the forensic firm, examined alleged financial irregularities, including discrepancies in revenue recognition, management information versus audited figures, and over US$7 million in payments to technology and consulting vendors. On 20 May 2022, Zilingo terminated her “with cause,” citing insubordination, neglect of duties, and breakdown of trust. The termination letter reportedly did not explicitly accuse her of fraud or personal misappropriation, but the board had clearly lost confidence.

Bose has consistently denied wrongdoing, claiming she was made a scapegoat, denied access to full investigation reports, and prevented from defending herself adequately. She resigned from the board in June 2022. By January 2023, Zilingo had sold its technology assets and entered liquidation proceedings under provisional liquidators EY Corporate Services.

For most founders in this situation, the professional and financial consequences are severe: damaged reputation, frozen or worthless equity, and difficulty raising new capital. Bose’s trajectory diverged sharply.

The Rapid Pivot to Terra-Invest

By 2024, Bose had launched Terra-Invest alongside financial services entrepreneur Krishan Rattan and former US Ambassador to Singapore Kirk Wagar. The firm positioned itself as a sophisticated platform combining institutional capital with investments in energy transition, healthcare, AI, longevity, precision medicine, trade finance, and pre-IPO opportunities — with a particular focus on India and the Middle East.

Public materials describe Terra-Invest as having “approximately US$230 million in closed transactions” at launch and an ambition to reach US$2.5 billion in assets under management by 2025. Bose is listed as Founding Partner with a mandate spanning these sectors. She also chairs the affiliated Terra Future Health Group.

This is an extraordinarily fast rehabilitation. Most founders whose companies collapse amid governance scandals spend years rebuilding credibility, if they rebuild at all. Yet Terra-Invest attracted high-profile partners and announced ambitious capital targets within roughly two years of Zilingo’s liquidation.

The critical question is: What capital did Bose herself bring to the table, and from where?

Possible Legitimate Sources — and Their Limits

Several conventional explanations exist, none of which fully resolve the puzzle:

• Zilingo equity or severance: Unlikely to be substantial. The company was insolvent. Any shares she retained would have been deeply underwater or subject to liquidation proceedings. There is no public record of a lucrative exit or buyout for her stake.
• Previous compensation: As CEO of a well-funded startup, Bose would have drawn a competitive salary, possibly with bonuses. Over seven years, this could amount to several million dollars cumulatively, especially if she had carried interest or other arrangements. However, this is rarely enough seed capital for an institutional-grade investment platform with multi-hundred-million-dollar ambitions.
• New partners and LPs: Terra-Invest appears structured as a modern asset manager where General Partners (GPs) contribute expertise, networks, and sometimes modest personal capital, while Limited Partners (LPs) provide the bulk of deployable funds. Bose’s network from Sequoia days, Zilingo fundraising, and post-Zilingo activities may have helped attract capital. The involvement of Krishan Rattan and Kirk Wagar lends institutional credibility.
• Post-Zilingo earnings: Bose reportedly took a new job in Singapore after leaving Zilingo and later repositioned as an investor and speaker on governance. She may have earned consulting or advisory fees. These are rarely transformative at the scale required.

These explanations are plausible on paper. Many asset management firms are launched with relatively modest GP commitments backed by strong narratives and networks. Yet the speed and scale of Terra-Invest’s positioning — combined with the cloud hanging over Bose’s Zilingo tenure — invite deeper scrutiny.

The Uncomfortable Questions

The public record raises several analytical concerns that have not been adequately addressed:

First, the Kroll investigation. The forensic review examined significant vendor payments and accounting discrepancies during Bose’s leadership. While the full report remains private and no criminal conviction resulted from it, the board’s decision to terminate her for cause and the subsequent collapse of the company suggest serious governance failures occurred on her watch. How does one move from that outcome to managing other people’s capital at scale so quickly?

Second, the 2025 GST criminal complaint. In November 2025, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence filed a case against Bose, Zilingo Global Pvt. Ltd., and others under sections dealing with fake invoices, wrongful Input Tax Credit, and falsification of accounts. The Mumbai court took cognisance and issued summons. While no arrest has been reported and the matter remains at an early stage, the existence of a criminal tax investigation adds another layer of financial scrutiny. It is difficult to reconcile aggressive tax allegations with the image of a sophisticated global investor raising and deploying large sums.

Third, the opacity of Terra-Invest’s capitalisation. There is no detailed public disclosure of how much personal capital Bose contributed, what the actual committed capital or current AUM is, or who the major Limited Partners are. Ambitious AUM targets are common in fundraising materials, but achieving or even approaching US$2.5 billion requires substantial institutional backing. The absence of transparent information about the firm’s actual scale and funding sources fuels speculation.

Fourth, timing and narrative control. Bose filed her high-profile Mumbai FIR alleging sexual harassment and other offences against Kapoor and Vaidya in April 2024 — around the same period Terra-Invest was being positioned publicly. While the two matters are legally separate, the timing raises questions about whether reputational rehabilitation efforts coincided with legal offensive actions. Both Kapoor and Vaidya denied the allegations forcefully.

A Pattern of Unresolved Financial Scrutiny

What stands out most is the recurring theme of financial opacity and allegations across Bose’s recent career. At Zilingo, questions arose about revenue recognition, vendor payments, and the gap between management figures and audited accounts. At Terra-Invest, we see ambitious capital targets with limited transparency on sources. And now there is an active GST investigation.

None of these have resulted in a final judicial finding of personal criminal wrongdoing by Bose. She maintains her innocence in all matters and has pursued defamation actions where she believes her reputation has been unfairly attacked. The presumption of innocence must apply.

However, the burden of explanation in the court of public and investor opinion is higher when one moves from running a failed company under investigation to managing other people’s money at scale. Institutional Limited Partners conduct extensive due diligence. They examine track records, governance history, and any pending legal or regulatory issues. The fact that Terra-Invest launched with notable partners suggests some investors were comfortable proceeding. Others might reasonably ask what assurances they received regarding the Zilingo chapter and the GST matter.

What This Reveals

Ankiti Bose’s transition from Zilingo CEO to Terra-Invest Founding Partner is remarkable for its speed and ambition. It demonstrates either extraordinary resilience and networking ability, or significant unanswered questions about the sources and legitimacy of the capital and credibility she now wields.

In the Indian and global startup ecosystem, founder accountability has often been weak. Companies collapse, allegations surface, and individuals frequently reappear in new ventures with little public reckoning. Bose’s case fits this pattern but stands out because of the scale of Zilingo’s rise and fall, the seriousness of the forensic findings that triggered her removal, and the subsequent criminal complaint filed against her.

Until there is greater transparency — either through court resolutions, detailed disclosures by Terra-Invest, or Bose herself addressing the financial questions head-on — the most powerful explanation for her new platform remains incomplete. The official narrative emphasises reinvention and forward-looking investment theses in AI, healthcare, and energy. The critical, investigative reading highlights the unresolved shadows of Zilingo’s collapse, the Kroll investigation, and ongoing legal proceedings.

Powerful pivots are possible in business. But when they occur this rapidly after governance failures and amid active financial scrutiny, they demand rigorous examination rather than passive acceptance. The story of how Ankiti Bose assembled the resources to launch Terra-Invest is still being written — and the most important chapters may yet involve answers she has not yet publicly provided.