If there’s one consistent theme in business, it’s that everything moves in cycles. We have a funding and growth boom followed by a slump in the markets, and then a new inflection point starts the cycle anew. But between these ups and downs, we can spot another pattern — corporate governance lapses, allegations of fraud against founders.

The past two weeks have thrown up two such incidents which have been boiling away for some time. The first one is the widely publicised troubles for BluSmart in connection with allegations of embezzlement against its founders in their other company, publicly listed Gensol.

The second equally big story is Medikabazaar, another B2B startup that has been weighed down by allegations such as inflation of revenue, inventory round-tripping and more, and its former CEO is accused of being involved in the lapses.

Even as the major BYJU’S saga continues to unfold inch by inch, corporate governance red flags are being seen in other large companies, just like we did in late 2021 and 2022. But before we dive into the BluSmart and Medikabazaar controversies, here’s a look at the top stories from our newsroom this week:

• Escaping The Deeptech Maze: After Piyush Goyal’s contentious speech at the Startup Mahakumbh, it’s been two weeks of finger-pointing and blame game, but now India needs collective action to solve the deeptech puzzle and spur innovation at every level
• End Of UPI’s Free Reign: Fintech startups and banks are looking to end the free run for UPI and the RBI might just do them a favour by revoking the zero MDR rules and unlocking the revenue machines
• Whatfix’s AI Mission: SaaS giant Whatfix’s tryst with AI began only a few years ago in 2019. Six years later, all its products are going AI-first as the Khadim Batti-led company eyes $150 Mn milestone in revenue this year

BluSmart Tangled In Gensol’s Web

BluSmart has come under the hammer of market forces after SEBI laid bare the allegations against Gensol promoters Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi, who are also cofounders of BluSmart.

The Jaggi brothers are alleged to have embezzled funds for personal spending and other investments from Gensol, and potentially even funds raised for leasing cars to BluSmart.

Gensol availed term loans to the tune of INR 977.75 Cr between FY22 and FY24.........

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