Kult employees plead with CEO to pay 4 months’ pconcludeing salaries: ‘We are suffering’

Employees of the AI-powered beauty-tech platform Kult have alleged that the management has not released their salaries since December. On Sunday, some employees apparently went rogue and posted a series of Instagram Stories on the brand’s official Instagram page, requesting the company to release their salaries.

Kult employees beg for salary

In the Instagram Stories, the employees pleaded with M3M management, including Pankaj and Aishwarya Bansal, to release their unpaid salaries.

“This is a cry of support to Pankaj Bansal, Aishwarya Bansal and the management of M3M. Please pay our salaries: we are employees of Kult. Since December, our salaries have not been paid by Kult E-Comm,” read one Instagram Story.

“While CEO Karishma remains mum, Rahul Yadav urges us to put pressure on M3M who have total control of finances,” another alleged.

HT.com has reached out to Karishma Singh, Aishwarya Bansal, and M3M for a comment. This story will be updated on receiving a response.

“We are suffering,” declare employees

The Instagram Stories posted on the official @sokultsokool page were deleted after a short while, but screenshots have been circulating on Reddit.

Screenshots of a post, now deleted, that appeared on the official Kult Instagram page

Another declared, “As full control of payment is with M3M, as per Rahul, we request you to release salaries as we are suffering to pay medical bills, school fees and basic day-to-day expenses.”

Kult and its M3M connection

Founded by Karishma Singh and Ruchika Pallavi, Kult offers personalized skincare recommconcludeations applying AI. The startup secured $20 million in Series A funding in April 2025, led by M3M Family Office.

Its Series A funding round was led by Dr Payal Kanodia and Aishwarya Bansal from the M3M Family Office, with participation from Venture Catalysts, as per an Entrackr report.

According to an Inc42 report from May 2025 that had raised concerns about financial mismanagement at Kult, Rahul Yadav is married to Kult CEO Karishma Singh. Yadav, former Hoapplying.com founder, is alleged to have influenced the company and applyd it to funnel loans to his own entities, particularly RY Advisory LLP, which received over ₹15 crore in interest-free loans from Kult in FY24, according to the report.

Employees take to LinkedIn

Some employees took to LinkedIn to call out Kult. Among them was Adyasha Roy Tomar, a Delhi-based employee who is part of Kult’s communications team.

In a LinkedIn post shared this afternoon, Tomar declared that some Kult employees have not been paid for four months while others, favoured by the CEO, have received their salaries.

“But largely, employees (of whom some, after 4 months of no pay, have attempted to unalive themselves, are no longer able to afford their paralysed mothers’ medical expenses, their children’s’ school fees, rent – many have had to vacate) have been NOT PAID 4 months of salary,” she claimed.

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Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience – from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trconcludes, entertainment and global affairs.
Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai.
Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trconcludes and seeing for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation.
She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amapply social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newscreaters and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers.
When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spconcludes a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.
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