From Ola to Housing.com to Flipkart, several startups have
found themselves hogging the limelight for controversies and spats involving
founders. Ashneer Grover ejecting himself from BharatPe highlights how things
can go downhill once the founder goes up against the board, management or
investors.
In April 2019, Bloomberg reported that SoftBank's proposal
to inject $1.1 billion into Ola had been rejected by the ride-hailing service's
co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal. The publication quoted sources as saying that
SoftBank's initial proposal for funding would have raised its stake in Ola to
40 percent. Aggarwal has been seeking to retain control of the company after
SoftBank had acquired a large stake in Uber, and sought for the rivals to
merge,
The report quoted sources as saying that Aggarwal had called
for a clause granting veto rights to founders over the appointment of any new
CEO, a clause which SoftBank was unwilling to accept.
The publication also noted in the report that Aggarwal was
not present at events which hosted SoftBank-backed founders and Masayoshi Son,
founder and current CEO of SoftBank. Aggarwal's absence was particularly felt
at an event which included Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Saudi Arabia
has funded close to half of SoftBank's $100 billion Vision Fund.
In July 2015, Mumbai-based online realty platform
Housing.com said it had "released its CEO Rahul Yadav with immediate effect"
after a board meeting.
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