India, Feb. 13 -- Early stage VC firm Artha Venture Fund has initiated the removal of the cofounder and CEO of Kolkata-based blockchain startup Hornet. The firm's managing director Anirudh Damani took to social media platform X to share that the investor has exercised shareholder rights to remove the CEO of a portfolio startup.

According to Damani, Hornet's cofounder and CEO Souvik Haldar engaged in governance breaches, including allegedly diverting seed funding proceeds for personal expenses. He further claimed that Haldar took up paid external employment with one of the startup's clients while using company resources, and copied sensitive company data onto personal devices.

"When this was found out, he tried to destroy evidence, threa...