A Would-Be Uber Rival's Ride to Nowhere

At ride-hailing startup Karhoo, the unusual expenses started small, relatively speaking. Vet bills, clothes, a pair of designer shoes. Finance staffers flagged the charges, but spending became more ostentatious: custom-branded Cuban cigars, first-class flights, a massive Vegas bacchanal. Nobody at K...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bloomberg businessweek (Online) 2016-11, p.28
Main Authors: Satariano, Adam, Hellier, David
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Business failures
Cigars
High tech industries
Startups
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:At ride-hailing startup Karhoo, the unusual expenses started small, relatively speaking. Vet bills, clothes, a pair of designer shoes. Finance staffers flagged the charges, but spending became more ostentatious: custom-branded Cuban cigars, first-class flights, a massive Vegas bacchanal. Nobody at Karhoo could do much about it. The culprit was CEO Daniel Ishag. Ishag's spending, described by five former employees and others familiar with Karhoo's finances, came to an abrupt end on November 8, when the London-based company shut down. It owed $30 million to creditors, employees, property managers, and other contractors, one of the people says. About 200 workers lost their jobs. It was a shocking collapse, even by the Icarus-like standards of tech startups, because last year the Financial Times reported Karhoo had raised $250 million.
ISSN:0007-7135
2162-657X