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Forbes-featured Indian origin venture capitalist labels two desi founders "frauds"
Ash Arora's accusations were against two start-up founders she met in San Francisco.
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Staff Reporter - Fri, 11, Jul 2025
- 00:34 EDT
- 58
Ash Arora is a former student of LSR college for women in Delhi and Delhi Public school in NOIDA / X/ Ash Arora
Indian-origin venture capitalist and partner of London-based investment firm, LocalGlobe, Ash Arora has created waves on social media, by calling out two desi entrepreneurs as "frauds”.
Arora, the youngest partner at LocalGlobe and named to the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 (Europe) list for Finance and Venture Capital in 2024, made allegations against anonymous start-up owners and in extension called out the issues in the San Francisco start-up ecosystem.
In her viral post on X, she alleged that she had "met two founders in SF this month", and described both founders as "frauds”.
Describing their fraudulent actions, Arora added that the first founder is "subletting a rented apartment and showing that as revenue for his startup," and the second founder is "claiming Amazon and Google are clients who have signed LOIs when they have never even heard of them”.
Have met two founders in SF this month. Both fraud:
— Ash Arora (@asharoraa) July 8, 2025
1. Is subletting a rented apartment and showing that as revenue for his startup
2. Is claiming Amazon and Google are clients who have signed LOIs when they have never even heard of them
What’s common among them? Both desi men…
While Arora has neither revealed the names of these founders nor has given any evidence to substantiate her claims, she has claimed that four venture capitalists have already reached out to her, "correctly guessing both these founder names”.
ALSO READ: US startups under fire after Indian engineer fraud claim
Responding to the post, numerous X users pointed out that there was no reason to include the race of the founders and also questioned the two-person sample-size used to tarnish all Indian origin founders.
Arora defended herself by explaining why she mentioned the nationality of the founders and said, "because it breaks my heart that Indians are doing this and ruining the reputation of my country."
Arora is a former student of Lady Shri Ram College for Women and was also mentioned as one of the top 22 Women VCs to Watch by Business Insider.
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