Ankiti Bose (born 1992) is a co-founder of e-commerce start-up

Zilingo Zilingo is a technology and commerce platform founded in 2015 by Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor, and has operations spanning Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Philippines, Australia and the United States. In January 2023, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg re ...

. She has been featured in Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 list in 2018 as well as in Fortune's 40 Under 40 along with Bloomberg 50 in 2019. On 31 March 2022, she was suspended as CEO after an attempt to raise capital raised questions about Zilingo's accounting practices, according to

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...

. On 20 May 2022 Bose was fired from Zilingo.

Early life and education

Bose is from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. She completed her schooling from Cambridge School, Kandivli, Mumbai. She studied mathematics and economics at

St. Xavier's College, Mumbai St. Xavier's College is a private, Catholic, autonomous higher education institution run by the Bombay Province of the Society of Jesus in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by the Jesuits on January 2, 1869. The college is affil ...

Career

Bose started her career working at

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

and

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. , Sequoia's total a ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

. After a trip to the

Chatuchak Weekend Market The Chatuchak Weekend Market ( th, ตลาดนัดจตุจักร, ), on Kamphaeng Phet 2 Road, Chatuchak, Bangkok, is the largest market in Thailand. Also known as JJ Market, it has more than 15,000 stalls and 11,505 vendors (2019) ...

Bose noticed that fashion markets in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

had immense room for penetration and growth. The market includes over 11,000 independent merchants lacking an online presence. Whilst there was investment in improving access to the internet, Bose recognized that retailers were not trained in financing, scaling-up, website design, and procurement nor well equipped to compete with large global players. In 2015, Bose left her position as an investment analyst at

to launch her own company,

. Bose was twenty three when she founded

. She moved to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

in 2016, where she developed the software and supply chain solutions. In 2019,

raised $226 million in

Series D A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...

fundraising, resulting in a $970 million market value. As of 2019, it had over seven million active users leveraging the global platform. The

China–United States trade war The China–United States trade war () is an ongoing economic conflict between the People's Republic of China and the United States of America. In January 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump began setting tariffs and other trade barriers on Chin ...

resulted in

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

retailers leaving China, which allowed

to expand into America. She has worked to source Indian fabrics for Californian factories as well as opening offices on the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

and

East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a ra ...

. At

, Bose supported a program to train women in Indonesia to create clothing, recognising that in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

almost 40% of women leave the workforce after they get married.

set up a coaching programme to support leaders across the company. In March 2022, Bose was suspended from

with allegations of financial misrepresentation and mismanagement pending an investigation. Among other allegations, shareholders questioned her S$50,000 per month salary which according to her contract five years ago was S$8,500. Her management style of using intimidation to extract compliance in her daily working in

was also called into question. Bose has spoken at the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

in India.

Awards and honours

*2018: Named in ''

Forbes 30 Under 30 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists of people under 30 years old issued annually by ''Forbes'' magazine and some of its regional editions. The American lists recognize 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in twenty industries ...

'' - Asia - Big Money *2019: Fortune magazine's 40 Under 40 *2019: The Bloomberg 50 *2019: Business Worldwide Magazine Most Innovative CEO of the Year – Singapore *2020: featured in Singapore 100 Women in Tech List

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bose, Ankiti 1992 births Living people St. Xavier's College, Mumbai alumni Indian women business executives Women chief executives