Wealth India Financial Services Pvt. Ltd, which operates online mutual funds transaction platform FundsIndia.com, has named a new chief executive officer after its founders exited following a dispute with its private equity investors.
FundsIndia said in a statement that its founders, CR Chandrasekhar and Srikanth Meenakshi, have ceased to be the company’s employees. Chandrasekhar, however, remains on the company’s board.
Meenakshi, who was also the COO, had ceased to be on the board since February 2018, the company said. It added that he was operating in a reduced capacity since then and that his departure had been planned for many months.
Apart from Chandrasekhar, the board comprises representatives from PE investors Inventus Capital, Foundation Capital and Faering Capital. The PE investors own about 80% of the company while the founders hold the remaining 20%.
In a separate statement, the investors said that the board took the “necessary measures related to the employment of the founders of the company after observing certain irregular actions”.
The investors also said that the board took the decisions after "substantial deliberations over a period of time". They added that the matter was in court. The statement didn’t elaborate on the alleged irregular actions or the court case.
Meenakshi, however, disputed the investors’ version on behalf of the two founders. He told VCCircle over the phone that the two founders did not know what irregularities were the investors referring to and that no irregulatories were brought to the founders' attention.
Separately, Chandrasekhar told VCCircle that there were no irregularities and that no deliberations were held. He also said that the founders have only one seat on the board while the investors have the remaining and that he was retaining his seat on behalf of both the founders.
News of the founders' departure was first reported by the The Hindu newspaper.
Meanwhile, the company said that its board has appointed Girirajan Murugan as the CEO and Suraj Kaeley as a senior adviser.
Murugan, who replaces CR Chandrasekhar, was the chief technology officer of the company for over 12 months. Kaeley was most recently group president for sales and marketing at UTI Mutual Fund. He has also worked with Fidelity, MetLife and Franklin Templeton in senior roles.
FundsIndia was founded in 2008. It is an online investment services platform that caters to retail investors for investments in mutual funds, equities, and corporate deposits, equity investment platform. In June 2015, the Chennai-based company had raised Rs 70 crore ($11 million then) in its Series C round of funding led by Faering Capital, with follow-on investments from Foundation Capital and Inventus Capital Partners.
