Ankiti Bose
Ankiti_Bose
Born/Date of Birthday: 1992
Place of Birth: India
Alma mater: St. Xavier's College, Mumbai
Founded: Zilingo
Education: Cambridge School ICSE, St. Xavier's College
Employer: Zilingo, McKinsey & Company, Sequoia Capital
Known for: Fashion technology
Ankiti Bose (born 1992) is the co-founder and CEO of e-commerce start-up Zilingo. 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. In April 2022 she was suspended as CEO after an attempt to raise capital raised questions about Zilingo's accounting practices, according to Bloomberg.
Early life and education
Bose is from India.. She studied mathematics and economics at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai.
Career
Bose started her career working at McKinsey & Company and Sequoia Capital in Bangalore. After a trip to the famous Chatuchak Weekend Market Bose noticed that fashion markets in Southeast Asia had immense room for penetration and growth. The Chatuchak Weekend 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 neither well equipped to compete with large global players.
In 2015 Bose left her position as an investment analyst at Sequoia Capital to launch her own company, Zilingo. Bose was only twenty three when she founded Zilingo, an e-commerce platform that offers B2B focused services. She moved to Singapore in 2016, where she developed Zilingo software and supply chain solutions. In 2019 Zilingo raised $226 million in Series D fundraising, resulting in a $970 million market value. Zilingo works with small and medium size enterprises in Southeast Asia. As of 2019 Zilingo had over seven million active users leveraging the global platform.
The China–United States trade war resulted in United States retailers leaving China, which allowed Zilingo to expand into America. She has worked to source Indian fabrics for Californian factories as well as opening offices on the West Coast and East Coast. At Zilingo Bose started a program to train women in Indonesia to create clothing, recognising that in Indonesia almost 40% of women leave the workforce after they get married. Zilingo set up a coaching programme to support leaders across the company.
Bose is involved with programmes to support and mentor women entrepreneurs. She has spoken at the World Economic Forum.
Awards and honours
- 2018 Forbes 30 under 30 - Asia
- 2019 Fortune magazine's 40 Under 40
- 2019 The Bloomberg 50
- 2019 Business Worldwide Magazine Most Innovative CEO of the Year – Singapore
- 2020 Ankiti features in Singapore 100 Women in Tech List
