BharatPe’s co-founder Ashneer Grover stepped down as the company’s Managing Director on March 1. For the past several weeks, his legal battle was going on with the board of the company. Earlier, the board of BharatPe had terminated Grover’s wife Madhuri Jain Grover. She was the head of control in the company. He was facing several charges including misappropriation of money.
Moneycontrol had reported on February 27 that Ashneer’s petition for emergency arbitration has been rejected by the Singapore International Arbitration Center (SIAC). In this, he challenged the decision of BharatPe’s board to investigate corporate governance.
Let’s know what Ashneer wrote in his resignation letter:
Dear Board,
I write this with a heavy heart as I am being forced to leave the company I am the founder of. I can proudly say that today this company is the leader of the fintech world. Unfortunately, since the beginning of 2022, I have been embroiled in baseless issues and some people have targeted me and my family. These people are not only ready to harm me and my reputation but they also want to damage the reputation of the company. But, they are pretending that they are protecting the company.
I have been the face of Indian Entrepreneurship and a source of inspiration for Indian youth who want to start their own business. Now I have to fight with my own investors and management. Unfortunately in this fight the management has forgotten what is at stake. That is Bharatpe.
Those who know me and have worked closely with me know that I believe in making things happen – whatever the challenges. I am a graduate of IIT Delhi-IIM Ahmedabad, one of the best institutes in the Indian education system. I am the child of middle class parents who have taught me the value of hard work and honesty.
I am a professional who has an impeccable record. Which has been instrumental in setting up two unicorn businesses – Grofers and BharatPe. I have not only inspired the youth of this country to fulfill their dreams but have also created employment opportunities for lakhs of youth. I take pride in the fact that my journey and growth has not only been limited to me but has also covered people who have been associated with me – professionally and personally. In my endeavor to promote and grow the startup ecosystem in the country, I have reinvested what I have earned and helped many people along with it.
BharatPe MD Ashneer Grover resigns, says I was forced to leave the company
I have taken care of Bharatpe like a baby. I have created this with my co-founder and have created a talented team of people. Most of the time the conditions were unfavourable but that didn’t stop me from moving forward. BharatPe was the last company to enter the UPI space. It competed with giants like Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay. Despite this, it emerged as the leader of the industry. It was my vision to make a big difference in payments with 0% MDR, Loan Against Payments, P2P with 12%club and BNP. With my efforts and hard work, the company has created a network of more than 10 million shopkeepers, who do 1,00,000 crore transactions annually and give more than Rs 4,000 crore as loans.
Most importantly and for the first time for any fintech in India – with my persistent efforts the company (BharatPe) obtained the license of Small Finance Bank to form Unity Small Finance Bank. I showed courage and willingness to give back their hard earned money to PMC Bank and its 10 lakh depositors.
The height at which BharatPe stands today is the result of the hard work of the last four years. With a team of less than 500 role-employees, less than $150 million spent and $615 million raised from investors, everyone knows about BharatPe’s success story. Along with writing the commercial success story of BharatPe, the company also tried to provide liquidity to its employees with ESOPs of over Rs 100 crore. We have given at least eight times returns to our 28 angel investors. The company was valued at Rs 20,000 crore in the Series E round. Today its value is Rs 40,000 crore. All this happened in less than a year. No other startup like this has achieved what BharatPe has done today. That too using just less than Rs 1,000 crore. Clearly the world should know the success story of BharatPe.
am i perfect Like any other person, I have many flaws. I am told that I am very straight forward and stubborn and very demanding about the standard of work. But, these are the same qualities due to which BharatPe has achieved tremendous growth today. Unfortunately, what happened in the past seems to be an ego battle being fought in the media under the guise of ‘Good Governance’.
The basic fact is that as an investor you are far from all those truths and you have forgotten what a real business looks like and you don’t have words of date to describe the effort that goes into running this enterprise day and night. Your vision of BharatPe is limited to the small window you used to see in the Zoom meeting application. None of you, even people living in India, have even visited our office. Not even once. Neither did Mickey. Neither Harshjit, nor Mohit, nor Teru Sain, nor Rahul nor Deven. None of you came even when we sent an invitation for the inauguration of our new office. It shows how much you are connected to BharatPe.
Your view of business and problems on the ground is so colored through the window of the Ivory Towers (in which you live) that you have no idea about the human aspect of business. It is sad that you have also ended your association with the Founder. You have ended your association with me. For you the founder of this company is nothing but a button, which should be pressed whenever needed. For you my human existence is over. Today you have chosen to believe in gossip and rumours, instead of frank conversation. You get furious so quickly because you have nothing to do with the truth.
The truth of the matter is, today you think my utility is out, so slowly I am becoming a liability. And since the investor template has been to make the founder a villain to let him out when he doesn’t need it. That’s why you did this to me. When you had to use my personal network, you were happily using it. Today I am being insulted, I am being treated badly.
You treat us founders like slaves–we are pushed to build billion-dollar businesses and thrown to the ground whenever we want. The investor-founder relationship in India is like that of an owner-slave. Unfortunately, I refuse to follow this path and am not ready to tolerate the constant humiliation of myself and my family. I am the person who started the company and took it to great heights. No wonder you are throwing me out today for your selfish reasons.
Now we are ending it. I want to state that you will not find even a single case of wrongdoing against me. Since you think you can run this company without me, I am leaving the company with this challenge.
Show me even half of the value I have created so far – I am leaving you three times the funds that I have used so far. I resign as the Managing Director of BharatPe with immediate effect. I also resign as Director of the Board. I will continue to be the single largest shareholder of this company.
I founded BharatPe and made it the company it is today, and no one can take away this identity from you.
Best regards,
Ashneer Grover
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