Star investor faces heat over ‘lewd’ text

Social media groups have been going crazy the past couple of days, over a scandal of sorts, involving a chat between venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy, and young entrepreneur Wamika Iyer. The 25-year-old co-founder of Frshday, a start-up based out of Chennai, posted a message on LinkedIn accusing Mahesh of misconduct. She alleged that she had received lewd messages from Mahesh a year ago. Her efforts to bring the episode to the fore had apparently proved futile last year and hence she took to social media again this year after she noticed similar allegations levelled against him.

In her LinkedIn post, Wamika said, “It is shocking and sad to see the ‘famous’ Venture capitalists, who are mentors and action figures to millions of young entrepreneurs, trying to exploit the rising women entrepreneurs. I know its too late to post here. I hope this man stops behaving this way with other women and I would advise all the women to be bold and not think about the society when it comes to exposing such people (sic).” The post, which is much longer, went viral on multiple social networking websites.

When asked why she didn’t approach the police despite having substantial proof, Wamika said, “I could’ve gone to the police, but we live in a country like India, and I didn’t want the police to come knocking at my door. I was starting my start-up and wanted to focus on it.”

Wamika had approached Mahesh for a possible investment in her company. She is one of three women to level such accusations at Mahesh, recently. Two young entrepreneurs, Pooja Chauhan and Supriya Sahoo, too earlier posted screen grabs of WhatsApp conversations with Mahesh.

When contacted, Mahesh refuted the claims strongly, saying, “I have never met Ms Chauhan, and neither have I ever met Ms Iyer. My online conversation with Ms Iyer was under my assumption that we were online friends and there was no possibility of any investment. Ms Iyer and her partner Vishal Nadar sent me the plan for their earlier company Dukaandaar repeatedly between Aug 2014 and July 2015.  In the months after that, on a phone conversation, I clarified to Ms Iyer that I did not believe it was an investable business, and there was no possibility of investment. Ms Iyer acknowledged the same and over the months that followed continued a personal conversation with me.” Addressing the post he added, “In May 2016, I spoke in a personal tone as two single adults might, and I immediately stopped doing so when Ms Iyer told me it was not welcome. This was my misunderstanding and I am sorry for that. I didn’t hear from either of them again after May 2016 — till today, some 10 months later. In summary, I believe I acted  without caution, and will be more cautious going forward.”