As per the news releases Ashneer Grover, co-founder and managing director of the $3 billion in 3 years and become a valued fintech BharatPe , has taken a voluntary leave of absence till March end amid growing scrutiny and pressure regarding his abusive language to a Kotak employee.
BharatPe’s board of directors – investors from Sequoia India, Ribbit Capital, Coatue Management and senior bankers– ex-SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar and ex-Union Bank Chairman Kewal Handa— were unanimously insisting that Grover needs to leave for some time.
In late 2020, Suhail Sameer, a consumer goods veteran joined BharatPe and became its CEO, handling daily operations, leaving Grover to oversee fundraising and big picture plans. Sameer and Grover both sit on BharatPe’s board. Sameer and co-founder Bhavik Koladiya will continue to manage day-to-day operations.
While BharatPe’s troubling work culture has been spoken about the last two years, Grover is stepping down led by the furore over his words to a Kotak Mahindra employee for not getting allocation to Nykaa’s IPO.
Ashneer Grover and his wife Madhuri had accused the bank of reneging on a promise to get him shares worth ₹ 500 crore when Nykaa’s IPO was launched. In October, Mr Grover had also sent a legal notice to Kotak Mahindra Bank.
The notice seeks damages for the gains Grover and his wife would have made after subscribing to shares worth Rs 500 crore in the company besides Rs 1 lakh towards the cost of the legal notice. The scathing legal notice alleged that the bank denied Grover the IPO financing at the “eleventh hour” even though his team had informed the bank of the investment opportunity “more than a month in advance of the IPO”.
On January 9, Kotak Mahindra Bank had said it is pursuing “legal action” against Mr Grover and his wife in connection with the call.
Today the Kotak Group, confirmed, appropriate legal action is being pursued. We would like to confirm that there is no breach or violation by the Kotak Group in any manner whatsoever,” the bank said in a statement.
BharatPe serves over 75 lakh merchants across 150 cities. The company has already facilitated the disbursement of loans totalling over Rs 3,000 crore to its merchants since its launch. BharatPe has raised over $650 million in equity and debt to date.
Ashneer Grover was born in Delhi, India on 14 June 1982. He has completed his graduation with Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Before co-founding BharatPe in October 2018, Grover headed the new business at PC Jeweller for a year. Earlier, he was the chief financial officer (CFO) at online grocery platform Grofers for two-and-half years.
He was also the director – corporate development at American Express for nearly two years. His longest stint was over seven years with Kotak’s Investment Banking where he served as vice president (VP) till May 2013.
Kotak Mahindra recently released a statement in which it said that it was going to take legal action against Grover and his wife Madhuri for purportedly using abusive language against its staff. This was after an audiotape went viral on social media, which the bank alleged was of their employee being threatened and abused by the couple for failing to secure financing and allocation of share in Nykaa’s blockbuster initial public offering last year. The same was, however, refuted by the couple as “some scamster trying to extort funds (USD 2,40,000 bitcoins)”
The marque investors are includes Tiger Global, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital, Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital and others.
