Sequoia’s Shailendra Singh leaves Zilingo board amid accounting probe

Sequoia Capital India’s Shailendra Singh has stepped down from the board of troubled Zilingo Pte following questions about the high-profile Singapore startup’s accounting practices, according to people familiar with the matter.

Singh, a managing director at the influential venture capital firm, resigned as a director about a week ago, after the departures of Temasek Holdings Pte’s Xu Wei Yang and Burda Principal Investments Ltd.’s Albert Shyy, said the people, asking not to be identified because the move hasn’t yet been made public. All three firms have been prominent backers of the fashion e-commerce platform once hailed as a symbol of Southeast Asia’s booming internet economy.

Sequoia and Zilingo declined to comment. Sequoia plans to appoint a replacement and still holds the board seat.

Zilingo has suspended Chief Executive Officer Ankiti Bose and begun an investigation into its financial practices, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday. The company had been trying to raise $150 million to $200 million with help from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. when investors began to question its finances as part of the due diligence process, people familiar with the matter said.