Jamuna Group abandons Evaly investment plan, flags risks

Jamuna Group has decided not to invest in Evaly, an e-commerce platform tainted by widespread allegations of fraud and embezzlement.

Mohammad Russel, managing director of Evaly, will now have to look for new options to secure new investments to stay afloat and pay off the mounting debt. Evaly appeared to be lying low after the government announced new steps to regulate digital marketplaces, leaving scores of disgruntled customers in the lurch.

Since its inception in 2018, Evaly has faced a debt of Tk 5.43 billion to its suppliers and customers.

Evaly’s trade system that thrived on stupendous cashback offers came under scrutiny after the Ministry of Commerce and Bangladesh Bank opened a probe and found a large embezzlement.

On Jul 28, Russel announced Jamuna Group’s plan to invest Tk 10 billion in Evaly.

Not so, said Jamuna Group. There was a meeting with Evaly and an audit was ongoing to understand the financial details of the e-commerce company, Shamsul Hasan, director of Jamuna Group, said two weeks ago. The investment was out of the question before the audit ended, he said.

Jamuna Group “decided not to invest there following an analysis of their debt, business strategy, sales and marketing strategy”, Mohammad Alamgir, director of marketing, sales and operations at Jamuna Group, wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

“Jamuna Group does not agree to put their hard-earned money, goodwill, merit and capacity at stake by investing millions following an unwise decision. Jamuna Group has the sole authority to decide on whether to invest in another company or not. It just cannot get carried away when someone requests. Jamuna Group never took responsibility for another company’s internal issues and will never take responsibility in future.”

Evaly Managing Director Mohammad Russel did not respond to phone calls or a text message from bdnews24.com.