According to Inc 42 reports, Broker Network has burnt over INR 280 Cr in less than 18 months. Additionally, the company has not paid salaries to more than 150 employees since November 2022.
As per the current status, the company is left with no money. However, the founder Rahul Yadav reportedly maintained a luxurious lifestyle such as owning a Mercedes-Maybach. He also hired a boardroom at the Taj Land’s End for Rs 80,000 per day.
Amit Gupta shared a LinkedIn post saying, “𝑨 𝒍𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒔”
“Why then would someone as astute – as a veteran, like Sanjeev Bikhchandani get swayed into the Rahul Yadav mess? The statement is from someone, part of the leadership team at Info Edge along with ‘Supporting him was an error in judgment’. Plus, Mr. Bikhchandani is not known to invest in FOMO or unrealistic valuations, being an entrepreneur himself”, the post said.
The post further said, “So what went haywire? Founder Charisma, charm, or something more? Obviously, we’ll never know why they invested, but how it unraveled is hardly surprising given the man’s chequered history. Folks, old enough in the ecosystem would remember those huge hoardings ‘Look up’ pop up in every major city, at nearly every prominent place. This is after Rahul & 11 more co-founders (12 founders…recipe for disaster, no?) splurged $1mn for the housing.com domain, bought from a Silicon Valley entrepreneur.”
“With big VC money, all seemed set for a blockbuster company in the making albeit Rahul’s brash behavior and that infamous public spat with Sailendra Singh of Sequoia Capital – For all of us, also part of the startup wave at the time (2014-2015), all this was crazy and kind of new. A founder taking on a noted VC but the man’s antics defied any wisdom… He was already splurging on cars and holidays and giving interviews from his bed – hiding under the blanket”, the post added.
According to several media reports, “Yadav turned to his long-time employees to borrow personal loans to pay employee salaries. One such top-level employee lent close to Rs 50 lakh to Yadav. He has filed a criminal complaint against Yadav.”
Allcheckdeals India Private Limited (AIPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Info Edge, invested Rs 276 crore in Yadav’s 4B Networks and provided debt financing of Rs 12 crore.
The company has initiated a forensic audit into the prop-tech startup in which it holds a stake, as founder Rahul Yadav “repeatedly failed to provide the information”.
Who is Rahul Yadav?
According to the reports of India Times Rahul dropped from IIT Bombay. He then turned into an entrepreneur. He was the co-founder and former CEO of real estate search portal Housing.com but was then sacked in 2015.
