Whenever India’s controversial startup cofounders are named, Ashneer Grover’s name will definitely be included in it. Ashneer was the co-founder and managing director of BharatPe, the country’s fastest growing fintech company. However, after a long dispute, the board has now removed him from all the posts. Along with this, the senior management has accused Grover of misappropriation of funds and many employees of the company have also filed a long series of complaints against him.
The controversy surrounding Grover began when an audio recording was posted on Twitter from an anonymous account. In the audio, a man with a voice resembling Grover is heard threatening to kill a bank employee, that too because he did not help him get shares in a big IPO.
After this recording went viral, Grover went on leave from the company. However, he denied that the voice was his. Grover, 39, later alleged that the company did not want to see him back in management and was preparing to fire him. Grover made several statements against the company and attempted to oust the CEO and threatened to sue the board of BharatPe.
Also read- This bank stock showed a jump of 8% in 5 days, Motilal Oswal also saw an upside of 30% in this stock
The controversy reached its conclusion last week, when Grover resigned from the startup. BharatPe also said in the statement that it reserves all rights to take legal action against Grover and his family in future. “Due to his wrongdoings, Ashneer Grover is no longer an employee, managing director or co-founder of the company,” the statement said. All information related to Ashneer Grover has also been removed from BharatPe’s website.
Grover said he was charged with stealing company money and leading a luxurious life, an allegation that stemmed from “personal hatred and petty thinking”.
Till a few weeks ago, BharatPe was seen as the representative of India’s emerging companies. Grover has successfully funded and run New Delhi-headquartered BharatPe from leading investors such as Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management, Ribbit Capital, Cotu Management and Binext. After three years of business, the valuation of BharatPe has reached nearly $3 billion today.
Meanwhile, Grover also made a lot of headlines as the judge of the reality show Shark Take India. Also he was actively seen on many public platforms. However, now Grover’s influence seems to be waning. Grover’s wife and BharatPe head of controls Madhuri Jain has also had to resign from the company. Grover’s brief statement came after the board announced his removal last week. Although since then he has remained silent.
Also read- These 5 stocks are included in Radhakishan Damani’s portfolio, know whether you should also invest
pile of complaints
According to current and former employees, Ashneer Grover was an expert in raising funds for the company. However, as the company grew, investors started getting signs of some problems with it. The problems started near 2020, according to the company’s old and new employees. At that time the whole country was almost at a standstill due to Corona epidemic and lockdown.
Bhatpe’s office was open at that time and like many other tech startups, it was delivering essential services including grocery and medical delivery. An old female executive from the industry who joined the startup at that time said she was surprised to see that wearing a mask was not mandatory here. Of the total 70 employees of the company, only a few were wearing masks. When he complained, Grover scolded him severely for making COVID an issue and influencing the employees.
A few weeks later, the female executive was suddenly fired. He told that a senior management said that he was hired only to bring diversity in the startup. The female executive had written a letter to the investors of BharatPe demanding a fair trial in this matter. In this matter Bharatpe told Bloomberg, “BharatPe said, “The corrective action was taken based on the complaints received from the employee. We cannot provide further details due to confidentiality.”
According to 10 current and former employees of the company, senior executives were also upset about Madhuri Grover. He told that he had threatened an employee with deduction of salary for taking out printouts in the office, and also criticized him for drinking too much coffee in the office.
The company’s second co-founder Shashwat Nakrani and CEO Suhail Sameer met Grover to discuss his wife’s management style. He suggested Grover to hire an experienced Chief Financial Officer, but Grover kept rejecting all the candidates one after the other. This post is still vacant.
Meanwhile, discussions started among many employees regarding Grover’s luxurious lifestyle in the office and mostly in the wrong form. They moved out of a simple house to live in a penthouse and renovated another luxury property. Grover bought Porsche’s car. According to the employees, he had also been telling people in the company that he had spent US$ 1,30,000 (about Rs 99.54 lakh) on just one dining table.
However, this January, Grover’s world began to fall apart when that audio recording of him was leaked on social media. This was followed by several more employees raising questions about BharatPe’s work culture, following which investors hired PwC and Alvarez & Marshall to audit the company’s money management.
BharatPe’s board issued a statement in early March, accusing Grover and his family of misusing company funds and living a luxurious life on company money.
Ashneer later wrote a post on LinkedIn, which said, “A founder is someone who has the backbone to raise money from someone and tell them I’m here,” he wrote on LinkedIn last month. Not to dance to your tunes.” Hundreds of Ashneer Grover’s followers liked the post and praised him for his outspokenness.
,