Crisis At Kult: Unpaid Employees, Missing Funds, And Blurred Chain Of Command

SUMMARY

• Nearly 100 Kult employees have alleged months of unpaid dues, forcing many to struggle with basic expenses, while a few senior staffers were reportedly still paid
• A widely publicised $20 Mn round appears to have translated into a much smaller capital infusion, exposing a mismatch between narrative and liquidity
• Kult’s financials also reveal a business model under significant strain as the company reported a top line of mere ₹27.5 Lakh against a loss of ₹ 3.2 Cr in FY25

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It was May 2025 when we last came across Kult, and the company’s narrative of starting afresh after leaving hundreds of employees unpaid looked like a game of smoke and mirrors. Indeed, we called it exactly that at the time.  

But if we are talking games, the story of Kult is now looking like a real-life Whac-A-Mole. Most of us have played this at some point in our lives, and most of us end up leaving the table frustrated. This is exactly what employees at Kult feel now, eleven months after that first swansong for Kult. 

Close to 100 employees at the beauty marketplaces have not been paid for months; some of them since November 2025. Similarly, brands and vendors have not been paid for selling their beauty products and services. Some of these business losses may have further led to pay or job impact. 

Many of them have now come out in the open with a stream of allegations, and to our ears, this chorus sounds familiar. 

Central to the game are the husband-wife duo of Rahul Yadav and Karishma Singh. Yadav’s chequered history as an entrepreneur is well documented by now, but Singh first came under the spotlight only during our investigation into Broker Network, the last major venture launched by Yadav. 

Kult was an intrinsic part of Broker Network’s web of related entities, as reported by Inc42, and now the new Kult is carrying that very game forward. This time around, it’s a lot bolder — they didn’t even change the name.  

When we call this a game, we don’t speak lightly. This is a metaphor to explain what’s happening here. 

An idle count tells us that over 200 employees have gone through this churn. Info Edge — the very same investor that backed Zomato and Policybazaar — was caught in it too, and if Kult and Rahul Yadav are to be believed now, the buck stops at the M3M family office, another significant business entity. 

And yet, none of these has managed to actually ‘Whack the Mole’. 

From The Beginning

Kult E-Commerce Private Limited was incorporated in 2024, but the brand’s intellectual property and trademarks were earlier housed under Kult App Private Limited, a structure Inc42 has previously reported on. 

In our last investigation, we had detailed how the company had accumulated liabilities of nearly ₹40 Cr, spanning unpaid vendor dues and withheld employee salaries and bonuses. 

Then came April 2025. 

Kult announced a $20 Mn Series A round led by M3M Family Office and Venture Catalysts, positioning it as a reset moment. The stated intent was clear: clean up past liabilities and rebuild the business from the ground up. 

At the time, Kult was pitched as a technology-led beauty platform, leveraging AI to deliver pesonalised skincare recommendations. Its visual catalogue, the company claimed, was designed to cater to diverse Indian skin tones, making product discovery both intuitive and inclusive. 

The ambition matched the narrative. Kult said it aimed to onboard 700 premium beauty brands, scale to over 10,000 daily orders by the end of 2025, and expand its workforce by hiring more than 200 employees across key functions. 

Investor messaging reinforced this optimism.

M3M’s Payal Kanodia had stated that the firm would not only back Kult operationally but also support future capital raises, with an aggressive target of scaling the startup to ₹5,000 Cr ($540 Mn) valuation within a year. 

On paper, it signalled alignment, capital in place, strong investor conviction, and a roadmap that suggested clarity of execution. 

At least in press releases and public-facing narratives. 

A year later, that story has unravelled in stark contrast. 

And as this investigation shows, the reality beneath the surface was far more fragile than it appeared. 

Notably, Venture Catalysts has told Inc42 that it never invested in the company. 

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