When former Twitter India boss Manish Maheshwari resigned from Invact Metaversity six months after its birth, one of the angel investor accused him of lying and bullying.
Angel investor
When former Twitter India CEO Manish Maheshwari left Invact Metaversity, an online platform for education and Web 3.0 & Metaverse, within just six month of its birth, the skeletons began to crumble after one of the angel investor accused Maheshwari of lying and harassment.
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Founded by Maheshwari & Tanay Pratap just six month ago, the startup received $5 millions in funding led by Arkam Ventures in February to build an education metaverse and expand globally.
In an email to investor, Gergely Orosz accused Maheshwari of wanting more capitals than purchased.
funds of $1.7 millions
Manish has been harassing Tanay to shut up, threatening to use company funds of $1.7 millions, including our angel investment money, to sue him, should Tanay speak ill of him in publics. This broke the glass with me, as that include my money which I never invested to be used as a tool of one co-founder bullying the others, Orosz said in the email.
Manish is holding the company hostage. He controls most of the votes & refuses to sign agreement that he confirmed he would sign to leave. All named investors & employees want him to leave, agreeing to fair terms. In a strange way, the hands everyone’s tied up until I quit, said Orosz, a software engineer and author.
In a tweet tagging Maheshwari, he further said: If I invest in a company, and a co founder takes that unethical company hostage, looking out for their only selfish interest: I will do what is best for employees, customer & investors. If the only way to do this is in public: I do it in public @ manishm.
Maheshwari had not yet reacted to Orosz accusation.
On Friday, Maheshwari announced that he is leaving the startups to seek new opportunities.
I’m leaving Invact to first take a break for a few month and then look for new opportunities. It’s heartbreaking for a founder to leave the startups, like a mother leaving her baby. I’m going through the same emotion, she said. he tweeted.
Orosz alleged in the email that Manish keeps going back on the promises he made to the named investors and then breaks them.
The designated investors were complying with the terms that he presented to accept the exit agreement so that the company can continue to operate. He then retracted these terms. He has been doing it for weeks.
No current employee trusts Manish to stay. They feel that he has cheated them too many times. I have spoken with most of them to confirm that this is the case, he stated.
Maheshwari previously envisioned building a virtual first curriculum and expanding to Europe and the US.
Metaverse is a concept that is on a cusp where it will be a major factor in transforming the educational landscape, said Maheshwari.
Orosz said in another tweet that they tried to resolve the internal dispute at the startup privately and it seemed to work.
