3rd June 2023, Mumbai: Rahul Yadav, the founder of Broker Network (managed by 4B Networks), a Prop-Tech firm, purportedly led a lavish lifestyle despite the firm’s employees remaining unpaid for several months. According to Inc42, a startup news blog, Broker Network squandered over 280 crore in less than 18 months, while over 150 employees had gone unpaid since November of last year.
“Yadav turned to his long-term employees for personal loans in order to pay employee salaries.” One such high-ranking employee lent Yadav around Rs 50 lakh. “He has filed a criminal complaint against Yadav,” according to the report.
Rahul Yadav’s entrepreneurial experience has been unusual. “It’s the kind of’resume’ that should have piqued the interest of Info Edge or other investors who backed him,” Inc42 observes. He establishes businesses, grows them, and then liquidates them.
Broker Network’s troubles are said to have started in August 2022. When it ran out of money to pay its staff, the company turned to the firm “Info Edge.” Info Edge then began questioning Yadav about the requirement for 2K+ staff.
“Employees claim that approximately INR 9 Cr is spent per month on the ‘home visits’ business and approximately INR 18 Cr to INR 20 Cr on the ‘home loans’ front.” According to the study, “this amount includes operational and employee expenses, so the monthly burn was just over INR 30 Cr by most estimates.”
They also stated that Yadav maintained a luxury lifestyle throughout, including owning a Mercedes-Maybach and renting a boardroom at the Taj Land’s End for Rs80,000 per day.
“Yadav told us luxuries such as his Maybach came from his earnings at Anarock,” and he was “also looking to buy a Bentley,” according to one colleague.