Hyderabad: Telangana government business incubator T-Hub on Wednesday, September 25, distanced itself from agri-tech startup Lab2Land AgriTech Solutions Pvt. Ltd., which has been accused of financial fraud, by investors and other stakeholders.
T-Hub stated that it does not provide any ‘financial backing’ or ‘funding’ to the accused firm. The T-Hub officials, in their statement, stressed that Lab2Land has only been using the state government incubator’s co-working space.
Meanwhile, the company has been using the state’s start-up incubator T-hub’s address as its base and using it to gain legitimacy.
Lab2Land AgriTech Solutions Pvt. Ltd and its founder, Aditya Deshpande have been accused of financial misconduct, swindling money from their investors and farmers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. According to the company’s LinkedIn profile, they do research and development of fertilizers and agro-chemicals. The company was providing zinc oxide fertilizers to framers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, on a no-interest credit basis.
The company has been accused of siphoning the money raised from investors, towards projects outside agreements, and failing to provide returns on their investments. The farmers, who were given the no-interest credit were allegedly cheated by the company by imposing hidden charges and interest rates.
A protest was staged by the affected individuals on Tuesday morning, in front of the T-Hub campus, where the start-up was based out of, as their address. The protestors formed a blockade on the road, that led to T-hub, demanding accountability from Lab2Land to their lost money.