Medikabazaar's ousted CEO denies board's allegations of financial irregularities

Mint

25-04-2025

Medikabazaar's ousted founder and chief executive officer Vivek Tiwari, who is fighting cases in multiple jurisdictions, including the Delhi High Court and the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Mumbai, has denied allegations of financial misreporting, including inflation of revenues as well as related party transactions with Ignexto Biotex, which is owned by his family member, in an interview with
Mint
.
Tiwari declined to say if the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had been in contact with him as the matter was sub judice.
Last week, the medical tech company's Series C investors filed an indemnity claim, seeking
₹
279 crore compensation from the company for alleged financial misreporting. The board also ousted Tiwari, stating "termination for cause" over allegations of fraudulent and malicious activities, according to a financial statement filed with the Registrar of Companies.
'Mr. Vivek Tiwari is involved in malicious and fraudulent activities, including those of financial mismanagement and financial fraud, which have caused irreparable harm and damage, and are alarming to the well-being of the company," the statement read.
The company's FY23 financial statements highlighted gaps in disclosures, including details of property, plant and equipment as well as physical verification of inventory during the year. The company also restated its FY23 financials, including reclassification of inventory, cash and bank balances, debt including current and non-current borrowings, as well as revenue from operations.
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A spokesperson for Boston Ivy Healthcare Solutions Private Limited, the parent company of Medikabazar, said due process had been followed in all matters through independent third party agencies, external counsel, board committees and shareholder forums. 'In addition, all the necessary steps are taken in accordance with internal compliance, company law and shareholder procedures," the spokesperson added.
Creagis and Healthquad-backed Medikabazaar joins a growing list of Indian startups that have faced governance issues. Companies such as Trell, BharatPe, Byju's, and GoMechanic have also faced audits from jittery investors over the past two years.
Medikabazaar company has raised a total of $165 million (about
₹
1,380 crore) via debt and equity. It was reportedly in talks to raise another $150-200 million earlier this year, but that did not materialise after the forensic audit was conducted.
Here are some edited excerpts from the interview.
See, the manner in which this entire thing came up and since I took the matter to courts, I didn't want to really get into any kind of media-facing situation. I just wanted to make sure that I was given enough opportunity for myself to be presented in the environment when I felt the time was right. And also because I wanted to honour the court proceedings.
I was just thinking that I should maintain a certain amount of dignity and silence rather than talking too much about what has gone wrong or what has gone right. I think that's the reason why I was not too much about, you know, speaking about the process myself and all of it. So I think that's the reason precisely.
Well certain things happened, which I didn't expect as a founder. Firstly, the way this entire issue came up from the whistleblower letter—the time and manner in which the investigation was done, not including me in major decision-making processes, sidelining me or trying to create situations for me where I would do something in good faith but people would not really honour me or not even get back to me on asking for findings and an investigation reports and all of it.
So I think the manner in which it has played out, it's not gone really well. As a founder, I felt as if, you know, I did not have enough chances to speak or be heard. And that's the reason why I felt it's the time that I should speak up now. If people are not willing to listen to my side of the story, then it's very difficult for me to put that narrative in place.
Nothing has been made directly to me as of now or nothing has been presented to me for me to present my case or my side of justification on the findings. You know, that's been precisely the reason why all audits and all forensic audits were taking place. But I felt as if I'm being targeted.
I categorically deny any intentional misrepresentation of the company's financials. See, in my time of managing the company as founder and CEO, everything looked great. The business was great. The business had grown from a pre-covid to post-covid situation where the growth was phenomenal. And during such times of growth, I raised large rounds of investments. I got investors to the board.
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Before that, there was a board that was managing and overseeing operations with various committees and subcommittees. And then suddenly all hell broke loose. When you have a whistleblower and an anonymous whistleblower letter, you don't give a chance for the founder to speak up.
The founder in his all trust and fairness and transparency gives up everything for you to take up that effort of doing all the investigation. And then he's not even presented with the findings. I think that's where I didn't feel as if it was justice was being done to me.
I should not have been targeted. Or maybe to the process, everybody who was involved in that whistleblower letter should have been fairly investigated or fairly given a proper kind of treatment as if it was the same treatment for everyone.
There was no related party transaction as per the Companies Act.
Number one, the size of the Ignexto business compared to the total Medikabazaar business would not be even 2-3%.
Number two, Ignexto was a company which was selling medicines to essentially end consumers and pharmacies and all of that. They maintained a chain of pharmacy stores. So it was a non-conflicting business with Medikabazaar. It may have a buying relationship, but all buyings and sellings were done at an arm's length.
Number three, it did not have any direct affiliation with me or as my ownership in the company or my wife's ownership in the company. The company was owned by my in-laws, but they have been in the pharmacy business for the past 40 years. So it was in all fairness and justice, it was all discussed with many of the investors in the past. It was not an unknown story that my family, my in-law's family were in the pharmacy business.
I was terminated as CEO in August 2024. Before even putting some proper finding and investigation report on record, what was the reason for me to be terminated? Why was I terminated in August 2024 when some reports were actually placed in January 2025? What was the tearing hurry for the board to terminate me five months before the reports would have been tabled in any form or manner, and where I was not presented with the case?
On 14 August, an e-mail came from a board member putting me on mandatory leave without any reason. I had recused myself from all those audits and processes so I was not getting into the way of the investigation process. All of this was led by a few of those management members and the board members.
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So, I was certainly put on some kind of leave where I did not agree to the terms. The problem was that I had given some concessions on a good faith basis. Now I started questioning the board about certain conducts and things which were not really presented to me in a transparent way – putting myself in the media last July, trying to portray me as stepping down because of PwC audit.
In fact, there was no audit done by PwC. It was never involved in any forensic investigation. It was done by parties with whom I had no idea and no credentials about.
In the whistleblower letter, there were no direct allegations against me. Most of the allegations were around financials, revenue or certain things which were related to revenue, leads and all of that. There was nothing directly accusing me of misconduct or doing something against the interest of the company.
There were 18 people named in that whistleblower letter and I was one of them along with my co-founder. But there were 16 other people and some of them were part of the CXO team also.
See, the legal cases right now are all about wrongful termination. I also have an NCLT proceeding going on for removing me as a director of the board which is with NCLT Mumbai. That's the reason why I was telling you that when the first notice came, I was given a chance to represent myself.
I had given a 30-40 page representation with certain facts. It was on 10 February. I had given my representation and I clearly expressed my ability to get few set of documents before this decision or EGM could have happened.
I was not given a chance or fairly represented by the company on the set of documents I asked for. And suddenly, one fine day, calling an EGM and removing me from the affairs of the company or from the board was unexpected. So, I went to NCLT at the end of February and Delhi High Court in August last year.
Well, see, in the context of the situation and the environment today, I feel as if I was not given a chance to present my case, not given a chance to be heard. So, you know, I would not like to speak much on this subject, but I'm just trying to protect myself.
I will take a neutral stand here. But you know, these matters are in court.
Yes, I'm not in India. I had gone for a business trip for a very large medical equipment fair outside India. And from there, I came to Dubai for some business meetings and all, because obviously, being a founder and also running the business for a very long time, I had my own connections and I had my own business priorities to be met.
So, I think it was more of a business trip which happened, which started with a point. And normally I travel quite a lot, quite frequently. I used to travel 15 days a month, even while running Medikabazaar. And it was more to do with business travel and all. Because I had set up my Dubai office, I'd set up a China office, all of those offices I'd set up, and I had fairly good contact all over these countries.
Yes, certainly.