WiseX Aurum in disarray as CEO resigns; employees' future uncertain

26 Sep 2024, 06:23 PM

The development comes just over a year after Aurum Proptech acquired Myre Capital (which is now WiseX Aurum) in May 2023.

Arti Singh

The head of the fractional real-estate investment platform WiseX Aurum, formerly Myre Capital, which was acquired by the publicly-listed Aurum Proptech Ltd last year, has resigned, leaving the business in disarray and the future of its employees uncertain, two people familiar with the development told The Head and Tale.

The development comes just over a year after Aurum Proptech acquired Myre Capital in May 2023. After the acquisition, ‘WiseX Aurum’ was launched, and the existing Myre Capital team was transferred. Aryaman Vir, founder and CEO of Myre Capital, continued to lead the team under the WiseX brand. However, the acquisition failed to deliver the desired results, culminating in Vir's resignation earlier this month.

“Aryaman’s last day was September 16th. Hiren Ladva (Executive Vice President at Aurum Proptech) has been appointed as interim CEO,” said one of the people cited above. 

He further revealed the disarray inside WiseX Aurum, saying, “The company hasn’t paid employees for two months. Morale is low, especially after the EY story. With mounting stress, no one is happy.”

The root of the unrest stems from Aurum Proptech’s dissatisfaction with WiseX Aurum's business head, leading to Vir’s departure. “What is even more troubling is the lack of clear communication to the employees. Out of the 20-21 staff members, only five have been retained, and they have been asked to report directly to interim CEO Hiren Ladva. For the rest of us? There is no clarity. No formal terminations. No salary updates. Just silence,” he added.

According to the sources, the employees haven’t been paid in months. “Yet we show up to the office daily, waiting for something, anything, to be said," the source shared.

It appears that Aurum Proptech is taking over the reins, intent on restructuring WiseX Aurum without a sales team. Of the five retained employees, none are from sales, the sources claimed. An internal communication to WiseX Aurum’s team confirmed Vir’s resignation. Some employees reached out to management seeking clarity, but more than a week has passed with no response.




There’s a sense of abandonment among the rest of the staff, as they grapple with uncertainty about their future, the company’s direction, and most importantly, their unpaid salaries. “It feels like we’re orphans,” the source lamented. "As a listed company, how can Aurum Proptech ignore labour laws like this?"

Adding to the tension is the selective salary distribution. While some team members received their August pay on September 12th, senior team members such as business heads continue to have their payments withheld. “Incentives, partner payouts, and brokerage commissions also remain unpaid. Partners are left chasing investment managers for their due payouts."

What exactly happened?

In what could be seen as an internal power struggle, some employees believe that Aurum Proptech’s reluctance to release funds was a key factor in Vir’s resignation.

The acquisition, worth around Rs 30 crore, was a mix of cash and ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans). “Aryaman made Rs 10 crore, while the remaining Rs 20 crore, locked in ESOPs (of Aurum Proptech) to be given to the senior leadership of WiseX Aurum as part of the deal, has also not been fulfilled yet,” another source confirmed.

“What happened was that Aurum Proptech was not releasing funds as per the business plan. They were also pressurizing Aryaman to reduce costs and team size and become profitable.” He, however, stated that in the business plan, Myre “clearly” indicated that it would take two years for the company to become profitable.
“So, there was a lot of miscommunication and mistrust between the management and the senior leadership.”

A third source familiar with the situation explained that the reason for the CEO's exit was due to pressure from Aurum Proptech, which began around February-March this year. “Aurum started imposing decisions on the company that were not aligned with the original agreement, which granted the CEO full decision-making authority. After the SM REIT (Small and Medium Real Estate Investment Trust) regulation was introduced, Aurum believed it was the right time to downsize the team to under five people until there was more clarity on the regulation,” he stated.

“This was more of a short-term approach, arguing that you can't simply fire and rehire a team overnight.” The source added that Aurum's decisions were driven more by an investor mindset than an operational one. 

Furthermore, the source highlighted that Aurum “unilaterally” made decisions that violated prior agreements, particularly regarding ESOPs. Although the ESOPs were promised annually, Aurum later reneged on this commitment verbally, and the shares have yet to be issued.

Some current and former employees believe that Vir also lost interest in running the business the way he had before the acquisition. “Myre was earlier a family-run business where Vir’s father (who runs the architect firm Morphogenesis) was providing the funding,” several former employees confirmed.

However, the business was quite stagnant. Last year, to increase revenues, Myre started a debt vertical, where it was earning “good margins,” so in a couple of months, they picked up in terms of revenues with minimal additional cost,” one of the sources said.

“But post the acquisition, due to a regulatory change, the debt vertical was stopped. And the Aurum Proptech management asked the team to only focus on fractional real estate. Now, regulations have come in this space too. So, due to a lot of uncertainty, it was taking time for them to meet the numbers,” he believed.

WiseX Aurum has applied for a SM REITs license from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Its AUM, according to sources, is about Rs 300-350 crore (assets under management) through 5-7 properties.

Aurum Proptech – which was founded by Ashish Deora – is trying to build a prop-tech ecosystem, for which it has acquired 100% or majority stakes in smaller companies in the domain. Some acquisitions and investments include NestAway, CRM Sell.do, CareerSocially, HelloWorld, Grexter, TheHouseMonk, Integrow, and K2V2, among others.

During FY24, Aurum Proptech posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 55.75 crore as compared to Rs 28.69 crore in the previous year. Its revenues rose to Rs 233.07 crore in FY24 from Rs 139.05 crore a year ago.

A detail query sent to Aurum Proptech didn’t elicit any response. Aryaman Vir also didn’t reply to queries sent to him via LinkedIn.

[An Update: The Head and Tale has learned that, on the day we sent questions to Aurum Proptech and Aryaman Vir, all employees were called for a meeting—including Aryaman himself. However, Aurum Proptech management didn’t attend. Instead, the employees were informed they should resign.

Most have now submitted their resignations, with October 10th set as their last day, and the promise that dues will be cleared. However, whether the management’s definition of "dues" aligns with that of the employees remains to be seen.]

[The story has been updated with additional inputs from new sources.]

The author is Founder and Editor of The Head and Tale. She can be reached at [email protected]
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