100 more employees quit Trell as creators demand delayed money

New Delhi: Lifestyle social commerce platform Trell has seen another wave of employee exodus as it struggles to pay creators in the country.

At least 100 more employees have left the video commerce platform as several creators and influencers wait for their dues to be cleared, sources told IANS on Monday.

The Instagram community page of Trell was full of complaints from the creators who requested the company to clear their pending payments.

“How about you clear the pending payments of your creators,” one such affected creator wrote.

Others said Trell is clearing dues of popular creators with large fan following while ignoring small influencers.

A query sent to Trell went unanswered.

The platform recently asked more than 300 employees to go as it had to do “some right-sizing within the firm”.

In April, Trell was probed by a forensic team from EY India over financial irregularities amid allegations that its founders siphoned off money.

The audit firm’s review last month alleged serious financial irregularities at the company. The founders — Pulkit Agrawal, Bimal Kartheek Rebba, and Arun Lodhi — were investigated by the forensic team of EY India.

The allegations also stalled Trell’s $100 million funding round.

In July last year, Trell raised $45 million in a Series B round led by financial group Mirae Asset, H&M Group and co-led by LB Investments.

With the closing of the Series B round, Trell had raised $62 million.

Previous investors, along with KTB Network, Samsung Ventures, and Fosun RZ Capital also participated in the Series B round.

In August 2020, Trell launched its social commerce section on the app, enabling users to watch personalised product recommendations across beauty, personal care and wellness categories that they can buy from within the app.