Due Diligence

Some Indian payment firms and aggregators appear to be stragglers in comparison with banks on meeting know-your-customer (KYC) norms. Compliance faultlines remain even as the broader fintech industry is in the spotlight after the central bank ban on Paytm Payments Bank.Large payment companies are approaching KYC more as a security checklist — perhaps for cost considerations — than a monitorable mandate by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), multiple industry insiders told ET. “RBI does not distinguish between banks and…

After Manish Lachwani founded the Silicon Valley software startup HeadSpin in 2015, he inflated the company's revenue numbers by nearly fourfold and falsely claimed that firms including Apple and American Express were customers. He showed a profit where there were losses. He used HeadSpin's cash to make risky trades on tech stocks. And he created fake invoices to cover it all up.What was especially breathtaking was how easily Lachwani, now 48, pulled all that off.Elevate Your Tech Prowess with High-Value Skill…

It is well known that the freeze in the funding environment is impacting venture-backed startups. But the fintech sector is bracing for the twin blows of a funding winter and increased regulatory scrutiny. The two are intertwined such that many early-stage companies are actually struggling to deal with these challenges. While the well-capitalised Razorpay, Groww, and PhonePe are setting aside dollars to get the requisite regulatory clearances, it is the early-stage ones that are suffering the most.Challenges in lending:…

Ankiti Bose, cofounder of Singapore-based fashion tech startup Zilingo has filed a Rs 820 crore defamation suit against angel investor Mahesh Murthy for his latest editorial which talks about the growing frauds in the Indian startup ecosystem. Murthy was a managing partner at early-stage venture capital firm Seedfund which has backed the likes of redbus, Chumbak and others. As per the Bombay High Court website, Bose filed a suit on April 20, 2023, through law firm Singhania & Co LLP and has also named a media company…