Bizongo founders, top investors face EOW complaint over alleged Rs 124 crore fraud

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A criminal complaint has been filed with Mumbai’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against senior executives and certain investor representatives of B2B platform Bizongo, including those from Accel, B Capital, Chiratae Ventures and IFC, alleging irregularities in the handling of over Rs 124 crore linked to the company’s now-discontinued supply chain financing business.

The complaint dated June 26, filed by invoice marketplace TradeCred, specifically names Bizongo co-founder Sachin Agrawal, CFO Gaurav Singhania, and investor representatives Amit Jhunjhunwala (Accel), Souvik Sengupta (B Capital), Ranjith Menon (Chiratae), and Inderbir Singh Dhingra (IFC), stating they were aware of the financial issues and involved in key repayment-related meetings.

The complaint alleges that between August 2024 and April 2025, Bizongo raised Rs 256 crore by selling customer invoices to investors on TradeCred. Under the agreement, any customer payments were to be routed into escrow accounts designated for returning funds to invoice buyers. Instead, the complaint claims, the company deposited these amounts directly into its own operating accounts.

“Bizongo sold 1,532 invoices worth Rs 256 crore involving 81 customers,” the complaint states.

“Bizongo… received monies from their customers… directly into Bizongo’s bank account and misappropriated and/or siphoned off the same instead of crediting the said amounts into the Seller Escrow Accounts,” the complaint states.

Moneycontrol has reviewed the copy of the complaint.

Bizongo, however, has disputed this version of events, saying all repayments were made into an escrow structure as agreed.

“Contrary to the claim, all repayments were made into a common escrow account as instructed by TradeCred. The structure of the agreement did not require us to route funds through individual customer-linked accounts,” a spokesperson said in am email response to Moneycontrol queries.

The allegations 

The complaint further alleges that the company’s institutional investors became closely involved with operations from July 2024 onwards, having  "complete visibility into the operations of Bizongo".  A meeting held on July 11, 2024, reportedly included representatives from all four investment firms and Bizongo’s CFO, where TradeCred was assured that repayments would begin.

The complaint notes that it was agreed that Bizongo would deposit Rs 1 crore per working day starting August 1, 2024. While the company initially adhered to this, payments reportedly slowed from November, with Bizongo citing “temporary business fluctuation.”

Bizongo, while not disputing the meetings, said repayments were consistent through this period and have significantly reduced the outstanding principal.

“Bizongo has been consistently repaying its dues to TradeCred--reducing its outstanding principal from over Rs 250 crore at its peak to Rs 66 crore today,” the company said. “For the remaining Rs 77 crore, we have already submitted a settlement plan to TradeCred to close the account, and we await their response.”

It is alleged that even after investors infused Rs 30 crore in March 2025, the money was not used to settle dues.

According to the complaint, this was structured with a 30 percent fixed return and was not directed toward repaying TradeCred investors.

“The entire infusion was done for the sole benefit of the shareholders… to the complete detriment of the creditors,” the complaint notes.

Bizongo and Accel both said they had not received any formal communication from the EOW regarding the complaint. Bizongo added that it would cooperate with the authorities if needed.

Accel further clarified. "Accel did not hold a board seat at Bizongo in July 2024 and is not involved in the company’s day-to-day operations. Amit’s (CFO at Accel) role was limited to participating in such meetings as investor representative with an objective to resolve the matter—he was not a decision maker.”

Queries seeking comment were also sent to IFC, Chiratae Ventures, and B Capital. Their responses were awaited at the time of publishing.

"Proxy CEO"

The document also names B Capital’s Souvik Sengupta, stating he was appointed “proxy CEO” of Bizongo from September 2024, and received compensation directly from the investor firm and via a financial intermediary. It further alleges that repayment delays continued during this period.

Bizongo, in its statement, said all payments were made with proper internal approvals and that it was not in direct contact with invoice buyers. “All payments were duly processed with appropriate internal approvals. We were not in direct touch with individual buyers, as TradeCred operated the investor interface,” the spokesperson added.

Past red flags

This isn’t the first time Bizongo’s financial controls have come under scrutiny.

In January 2025, auditor BSR & Co. LLP flagged potential irregularities in the company’s FY24 financials, including questionable vendor-customer relationships and missing Proof of Delivery (POD) documentation. The auditor noted: “The inconsistent/ inadequate audit evidence observed by us during the course of our ongoing audit… cast a doubt over the veracity of the amounts and underlying transactions recorded in the books of accounts.”

Bizongo faces scrutiny after auditors flag potential fraud

While BSR stopped short of terming it fraud, it urged Bizongo’s board to launch a deeper investigation under Section 143 of the Companies Act. In response, Bizongo said the concerns were linked to an earlier internal fraud uncovered in September 2024, involving a former employee who allegedly siphoned off over Rs 21 crore through fake transactions in its supply chain financing vertical-the same line of business now at the heart of the TradeCred complaint.

The company subsequently shut down that vertical in September 2024 and launched an internal investigation, supported by PwC and legal advisory from Trilegal. The committee included representation from its major investors.

Bizongo had told Moneycontrol at the time that, “The intimation from the auditors is not a report, but an alert… It is essentially a request to the board to conduct a deeper dive into the company’s financial processes to identify any malpractices.”

The company claimed PwC’s remit was later expanded to identify broader operational weaknesses and implement stronger compliance systems.

The governance fallout led to board-level and leadership exits. In early 2025, Ranjith Menon (Chiratae) and Arijit Sengupta (B Capital) resigned from Bizongo’s board. A month later, co-founder Sachin Agrawal stepped down as CEO, making way for Prahlad Krishnamurthi, a Flipkart veteran, to lead the company’s post-restructuring phase.

Bizongo has maintained that these issues stem from legacy operations and that its current business focused on procurement and working capital for SMEs is being run under tighter compliance.

In its latest response, it mentions that the new line of business focused on raw material procurement has since turned profitable.

“Bizongo has exited this SCF business now and has only been paying down TradeCred over the last year. Meanwhile, our pivot to the new raw materials business has turned profitable as of AMJ ’25,” the company said.

What next 

Request has been made to with EOW to register a First Information Report (FIR) and initiate proceedings under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, citing sections related to cheating, criminal breach of trust, and conspiracy.

“Bizongo and the other named persons have at all times acted with the fraudulent and dishonest intention… Bizongo clearly has dishonestly and fraudulently acted in a manner which has prevented the monies paid by the customers to be made available to the Buyers,” the complaint concludes.

The EOW has acknowledged receipt of the complaint. As of publishing, no FIR had been filed.