Bengaluru-based Nestaway’s co-founder Amarendra Sahu has filed an First Information Report (FIR) alleging fraud, cheating, forgery of documents and criminal intimidation against Tiger Global, Chiratae Ventures and Goldman Sachs, in a rare instance of a startup founder filing a criminal complaint against its investors.
The investors have approached the Orissa High Court, seeking to quash the FIR filed in September last year with the Bhubaneswar Police.
The next hearing of the matter is scheduled for January 9.
Sahu’s complaint alleges that his signature as a company director was illegally used to finalise NestAway’s Rs 90 crore sale to proptech firm Aurum on June 28, 2023.
He asserted that he resigned from his directorial role on June 19, 2023 — over a week prior to the completion of the deal.
A copy of the FIR was reviewed by Business Standard.
After its acquisition, NestAway's valuation was reduced by 95 per cent.
The firm was established in 2015, and raised $116 million in funding.
NestAway's most recent funding round took place in 2019, when it raised $220 million from prominent investors such as Tiger Global, UC-RNT Fund, Flipkart, Goldman Sachs, and Yuri Milner.
An email query to Chiratae remained unanswered at the time of press.
In the FIR, Sahu said that due to the pandemic, the company incurred heavy losses as its operations were disrupted. Due to the pandemic and his aged parents, Sahu worked remotely from his home office in Odisha.
When the firm was under severe financial distress, investors, namely Goldman Sachs and Tiger Global, left the board to avoid sustaining personal monetary losses or reputational damage.
The other three partners, Jitendra Jagadev, Smruti Parida, and Deepak Dhar, also left the firm.
“But I continued with the company without any financial gain, and due to my sincere endeavour and dedication, the company survived and was brought back to a viable condition,” Sahu said in the FIR.
Sahu alleged the investors, in collusion with Jitendra Jagadev, one of the directors, secured a direct offer to sell their shares at a very low valuation to Aurum without involving Sahu and over 250 shareholders.
Fearing the deal might fall through, Sahu claimed that the investors persuaded him to sell his shares and assist in selling others’ shares as well.
His complaint alleges that the lead investors persuaded him via emails, WhatsApp messages, and phone calls, assuring him of an additional Rs 11.72 crore on top of the value of his 5 per cent stake.
However, the investors allegedly denied this promise following the completion of the transaction.
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