Builder.ai is bankrupt, owing cash to a shadowy Israeli spy firm, a top US law firm, and a crisis PR group.
The Microsoft-backed London startup’s US parent filed Chapter 7 in Delaware Monday. The filings reveal unpaid debts to Amazon, Microsoft, and key customers.
Creditors include Tel Aviv’s private intelligence group Shibumi Strategy, Quinn Emanuel – known as “the most feared law firm in the world” – and LA’s crisis communications firm Sitrick Group. 
These hires came after the Financial Times reported co-founder and CEO Sachin Dev Duggal faced criminal probes in India. Duggal denies any wrongdoing and says he’s only a witness in the case.
An internal Builder.ai review found possible fake sales, forcing revenue restatements slashing estimates to a quarter of previous numbers. Employees were told of insolvency last month.
Quinn Emanuel fired off a letter to FT over potential breaches of confidence amid coverage of Builder.ai’s troubles.
Shibumi’s founders include former Mossad intel. The firm was linked in 2022 to a spying scandal involving financier Lars Windhorst targeting a German football executive.
Windhorst later admitted to hiring pros to “investigate” but regrets how things played out.
Builder.ai lists over 200 creditors with liabilities up to $100 million and assets below $10 million. T&M USA, another corporate intel outfit, also appears as a creditor.
A former Builder.ai insider called the use of international advisers “normal practice” for a billion-dollar tech firm.
Duggal, Quinn Emanuel, Sitrick, Shibumi, and Builder.ai declined to comment.
Watch Windhorst’s interview here.
