Evaly now says it is looking for foreign funds
The e-commerce CEO declined to make any comment on Jamuna’s decision
Embattled e-commerce platform Evaly has said it is now looking for foreign investment as local industrial conglomerate Jamuna Group scrapped its Tk1,000 crore investment plan to the company.
"We have been continuously trying to attract new investments. Now we are trying to get foreign funding," the e-commerce platform's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mohammad Rassel told The Business Standard Tuesday.
He, however, declined to make any comment on Jamuna Group's backtracking on investment decision.
On Monday, Jamuna Group Director (Marketing, Sales and Operations) Mohammad Alamgir Alam took to social media to announce their decision.
Alamgir in a Facebook post said, "Jamuna Group is not willing to risk its long-earned money, reputation, talent and capability by making an insensible decision to invest hundreds of crores of taka in any business without thorough review and reconsideration."
On 28 July, Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel announced that Jamuna Group was going to invest Tk1,000 crore in the e-commerce platform. The announcement came at a time when several government agencies were investigating Evaly's reported embezzlement of Tk338 crore it had taken in advance from customers and owed to merchants.
Later, in reply to a show cause notice by the commerce ministry, Evaly informed that its liabilities to customers amounted to Tk311 crore, plus the company owed the merchants Tk206 crore.
Jamuna Group top official Alamgir Alam said, "Jamuna Group was interested to invest initially after Evaly had invited us. But after scrutinising their liabilities, business strategy, sales and marketing policy, now we are withdrawing our decision on investing in the e-commerce platform."
In another facebook post, he mentioned his 32 pending deliveries from Evaly.
"Even I am not getting my products from Evaly. How could we come up with something positive before the media about them? Now you can understand our decision regarding investing in the e-commerce platform," he added.
Rassel yesterday told TBS, "We hope to get investment as Evaly has regular business transactions. We talked with different local companies for investments in the past and will keep trying."