Nilenso - Indian Tech Cooperative
Description
Stefan Ivanovski:
“Nilenso, is the first tech worker cooperative in India. Founded in 2012 by eight colleagues, they wanted to avoid the fate of many small tech consultancies in India—becoming “zombie companies.” According to Steven, zombie companies are businesses that persist after founders leave, lacking clear ownership or strategic direction, leaving employees to manage them in a stagnant, leaderless state.
Steven was among the eight people who started Nilenso. The team envisioned a startup with a flat organizational structure. However, they did not have an idea what type of legal entity they would register. After some discussions, they landed on the idea of a tech worker cooperative. But they found few existing models around the world. To make matters more challenging, Indian law does not provide a legal structure for worker cooperatives.
The founding team consulted with several lawyers to explore the legal pathways for establishing Nilenso.
Due to the legislative framework, the founders registered Nilenso as a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) in India, not as a formal cooperative. There are several reasons that Steven shares as to why they chose an LLP, rather than a cooperative legal entity: India’s cooperative laws are outdated and restrictive, primarily designed for agricultural and dairy cooperatives. There was no legal framework for a technology cooperative.
After consulting lawyers and accountants, the founders were advised that using the housing cooperative (one of the initial proposals) structure would look “really weird” and create tax complications.
The LLP structure offered legal simplicity and liability protection, similar to how law firms operate. Nilenso adapted this by making every member a partner, ensuring equal ownership and governance internally.
Steven Deobald explained:
- “India has an odd set of cooperative laws… Our lawyers said you can just structure this like a law firm—use an LLP. Instead of having ‘partner’ as the end goal, everyone’s a partner. We open-sourced our LLP partnership agreement on GitHub.”
This approach allowed Nilenso to function as a de facto worker cooperative while complying with Indian law.
Therefore, the idea of an institution shaped Nilenso’s structure as a de facto worker cooperative, ensuring that ownership and control remain with those actively working in the company. Unlike traditional startups, Nilenso was designed to survive leadership changes and resist acquisition pressures from tech giants.”
(https://www.lifestyledemocracy.com/the-future-of-tech-worker-cooperatives-institutions-not-startups/)
More information
Video Interview with co-founder Steven Deobald, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na3vlXcZ4ng