Bigspoon Foods faces allegations of fraud from at least one angel investor, while India’s tax department is probing an alleged tax evasion by FirstCry founder Supam Maheshwari.
Vendor plans to sue Bigspoon over payment dues
Cloud kitchen startup Bigspoon Foods faces allegations of fraud from at least one angel investor even as a vendor is considering taking legal action to recover overdue payments, VCCircle reported on Tuesday.
DealStreetAsia could not independently verify the report.
Last year, the company said it had raised about $12.9 million (Rs 100 crore) in its Series A funding round led by Indian Angel Network.
One of the people cited in the report said the transaction was never completed.
“The Series A round… had term sheets that fell through owing to the onset of funding winter, while the PR (press release) could not have been controlled in time,” Bigspoon CEO Kapil Mathrani said in an email response to VCCircle’s queries.
The people cited above also said the company is alleged to have misled its stakeholders on the fundraiser and manipulated its numbers, including bank documents, in the run-up to the transaction. One of the investors who raised questions about Bigspoon is Hari Balasubramanian, who says he came forward to warn other investors.
Mathrani dismissed the allegations to VCCircle. “I categorically deny all of this. The gentleman, Hari B, who floated a manipulative notion blog, is an investor in competing startups (four of them, at least), and NOT an investor in Bigspoon. He is being served a show-cause and defamation suit,” he said.
Supam Maheshwari gets tax notices
India’s tax department is probing an alleged tax evasion by the founder of three Indian unicorns — FirstCry.com, Globalbees Brands Ltd, and Xpressbees — Bloomberg reported.
DealStreetAsia could not independently verify the report.
The department, which is run by India’s Ministry of Finance, has sent notices to founder Supam Maheshwari asking why he didn’t pay more than $50 million in taxes on equity transactions conducted in privately-held FirstCry.
At least six investors in FirstCry, including private equity firm ChrysCapital Management Co and Sunil Bharti Mittal’s family office, have also received enquiries related to the matter, the report said.