Ashneer Grover, who shot to fame on the reality show Shark Tank for his harsh attitude and pinpoint retaliation, is back in the spotlight. He has been forced to leave the company Bharat Pe in which he was a co-founder until now. The firm board removed Ashneer Grover from all positions on March 1, the day after he resigned.
In such a case, we need to know the full story of India’s leading financial startup Bharat Pe and its co-founder Ashneer Grover. This will tell us when ‘Bharat Pe’ was started? What is the nature of this company’s business? What is the dispute surrounding Ashneer Grover and Kotak Bank, which has forced him to resign?
The story of how a corporation was formed in Bharat is fascinating. Ashneer met Shashwat Nakrani and Bhavik Koladia in 2017 while working as the Business Head for PC Jewelers Limited. Shashwat presented Ashneer with the concept of creating an app for online transactions.
This notion appealed to Ashneer, who has held senior positions in companies such as American Express and Grofers. While Shashwat was knowledgeable in technical areas, Ashneer was in charge of the company’s marketing and business operations from the start. Finally, in 2018, the three colleagues decided to establish this business together.
What Is A FinTech Company?
FinTech stands for ‘Financial Technology’ in abbreviated form. This technique is utilized in online money transactions. Operations relating to money transfers, digital loans, bank work, and cryptocurrency, among other things, are done online using an app. The market for firms like Google Pay, Paytm, and Bharat Pe is constantly growing as the number of smartphone users in India grows along with the expansion of online payments.
Let us explain that fintech companies get money in three different ways.
- Some businesses charge a fee for both utilizing the app and making a transaction.
- By using the company’s e-wallet and signing up for a subscription.
- Advertising is another source of revenue for fintech companies.
Competition With Paytm And PhonePe
The success of Bharat Pe Company among Indian firms such as Paytm and PhonePe is due to the fact that the company has built its business strategy on them. To begin its company, Bharat Pe Company stressed these four points:
- Customers can pay the shopkeeper using the UPI QR code.
- With the same Bharat Pe QR code, you can make several payments.
- Shopkeepers can accept payments for free using the Bharat Pe app.
- People can also get loans through the Bharat Pe App.
Within a few days of its launch in June 2018, two years after Bharat Pe’s inception, over a thousand people had downloaded the Bharat Pe app. The number of users utilizing this app has risen to lakhs as a result of this. Bharat Pe has been downloaded by over ten million individuals from the Google Play Store. Not only that but this company, which conducts online money transactions and loans, is valued at more than Rs 21 thousand crores in February 2022. During the Corona period, the number of users of the Bharat Pe app grew quickly, as did the company’s earnings. Furthermore, the organization began providing loans to merchants based on their business. Until December 2021, the company has given over Rs 3,000 crore in loans to retailers and businessmen.
Shareholding Of Ashneer Grover
Bharat Pe is a state-owned company in India. His stake in the Bharat Pe firm was 9.5 percent, or Rs 1,800-1,900 crores, according to the previous fund. Grover has now said that he intends to sell his whole stake in Bharat Pe. When he resigned, Ashneer Grover stated in his resignation letter that he is still one of the company’s largest shareholders.
Ashneer Grover’s Controversy:
For the past two months, Ashneer Grover, the co-founder of Bharat Pe, has been embroiled in controversy. The main reason for this is that the audio of Ashneer became viral earlier this year. In this, he was overheard behaving abusively to a Kotak Mahindra Bank employee. Aside from it, he was accused of acting in a way that was against the company’s guidelines.
The corporation decided to launch an investigation after receiving a complaint against Ashneer and his wife. On February 4, news surfaced that a board-ordered independent audit of BharatPe had discovered evidence of fraudulent recruitment transactions and payments to non-existent vendors. A letter from the company’s troubled cofounder Ashneer Grover to the board of directors, in which he requested the removal of CEO Suhail Sameer, was released hours later.
Grover was put on ‘voluntary’ leave until the end of March following the release of an audio clip in early January in which he allegedly harassed and threatened a Kotak Mahindra Bank employee after missing out on Nykaa’s IPO last year. The clip, according to Ashneer Grover, is fabricated.
Madhuri, the controller of BharatPe, writes to Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) on February 10 to inquire about recent media disclosures. She also raises concerns about the way an inquiry into potential irregularities at the fintech firm is being conducted in her letter. Her letter states that she is considering legal action against the company and requests an internal review into how the details of A&M’s investigation were allegedly ‘leaked.’
BharatPe CEO Suhail Sameer tells staff on February 11 that the conclusions of the firm’s ongoing governance review will be shared with the board in a few weeks while assuring them that the fintech firm has sufficient finances to weather the crisis.
His wife, Madhuri Jain Grover, was discovered to be implicated in money laundering during the investigation. On February 23, the company terminated Madhuri Jain as the company’s controller on charges of misappropriating funds. Jain had been in charge of BharatPe’s finances since October 2018.
Ashneer Grover then took his case to the Singapore International Arbitration Center, challenging his own company’s choices. He had to concede defeat here as well. Ashneer was forced to leave the company in Bharat Pe as a result of this. Ashneer Grover resigned from his position after he lost an arbitration that he had filed against the company.
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