Trell cofounder Sachan sold full stake in company last year, says no longer involved

Sachan registered AppsForBharat in November 2020. He told ET that he is no longer involved in Trell and has fully exited the company over the course of the last 1.5 years. Sachan first diluted the majority of his equity by transferring it to the Msop pool in December 2020. He later sold his remaining stake of about 1.5% to LOGX Venture Partners and LetsVenture syndicate, in October 2021.

This comes at a time when the forensic team from
EY India is currently carrying out a detailed investigation into the finances of Bengaluru-based Trell, ET reported on March 12. The six-year-old startup is currently in the middle of a restructuring exercise as part of which it is planning to lay off hundreds of employees. On March 17, ET reported that cofounder
Pulkit Agarwal sent a fiery note to all investors of the firm, questioning the nature of a
forensic audit by EY India and claiming the exercise was ordered by a cohort of select financial backers – not by the company or its board.

ETtech

Sachan’s exit from Trell’s cap table took place last year but has not been reported yet.

“We had this culture of running experiments internally at Trell. I ran this experiment in the online devotional category and I saw good results. I decided to focus on it full-time, and stepped away from Trell’s operations in mid-2020,” said Sachan, adding that his exit was amicable.

Discover the stories of your interest

Trell received 17% equity in AppsForBharat for a consideration of Rs 85,000 and because Sachan started working on it while at Trell. It has over time diluted to 10% as AppsForBharat went on to close two funding rounds of about $14 million from Elevation Capital, Sequoia Capital India, Beenext and Matrix Partners India. Trell does not have any governance rights in Sachan’s startup, he said.

After founding AppsforBharat Sachan held informal talks with Trell’s Board to exit the company during its subsequent funding rounds since Trell didn’t intend to invest more in it, according to a person aware of the development.

Trell did not respond to ET’s query.

Trell raised $45 million in July 2021 and its backers include H&M Group,
Sequoia Capital India, Mirae Asset, KTB Network.

Founded by Arun Lodhi, Sachan, Pulkit Agrawal, and Bimal Kartheek Rebba, Trell offers a mobile app where users can make and share three-minute videos around their interests and passions.

Trell had gained prominence because of an unprecedented boom in the content-to-commerce segment even though it started life as a TikTok clone. It was last valued at $120 million when it raised $45 million in July last year.