Being forced to bid adieu: Ashneer Grover resigns from BharatPe

Grover says he has been embroiled in baseless, targeted attacks

BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover resigned as the managing director and board director of the fintech unicorn on Tuesday, capping weeks of drama that started after an audio clip showed him allegedly abusing a bank employee.

He has been on a leave of absence since mid-January following the allegation that he threatened a Kotak Mahindra bank employee by phone for denying him financing to buy shares in Nykaa’s initial public offering.

Grover sought compensation from the bank’s MD, Uday Kotak, for refusing to finance his personal investment and the bank then alleged that Grover used foul and threatening language towards its employee.

Also read: Ashneer Grover loses Singapore arbitration, BharatPe probe to continue

The startup, which is looking to go public and counts Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital as its investors, then roped in independent auditor PWC to bolster internal governance rules to quell investor disquiet over the public row involving personal investments by one of its co-founders, Reuters has reported.

Last week, Grover lost an arbitration he had filed with the Singapore International Arbitration Centre claiming that BharatPe’s investigations against him were illegal.

“I’ve been embroiled in baseless and targeted attacks on me,” Grover wrote in his resignation letter to the firm’s board, adding that he refused “to tolerate this continuous and shameful vilification of me and my family.” Grover said he was “fighting a long, lonely battle” against his own investors and management and described the entire episode as a “battle of egos”, according to the letter which was carried in full by many media houses.

“Ashneer Grover resigned as Managing Director and Board Director of BharatPe minutes after receiving the agenda for (the) upcoming board meeting that included submission of the PWC report regarding his conduct and considering actions based on it. The board reserves the right to take action based on the report’s findings,” BharatPe told DH via email.

Grover, who is still the largest shareholder of BharatPe, founded the firm – which allows digital payments through QR codes – with his fellow founders in 2018.

One of the items on the agenda of the board meeting late on Tuesday was a clawback of Grover’s shares, according to media reports.

Action against Grover could have been planned well in advance but Grover’s resignation won’t put an immediate end to the saga, a corporate governance expert told DH on condition of anonymity.

“This will be a long-drawn process,” the expert said, highlighting how investors including venture capitalists and private equity firms typically deal with a scenario like this.

Grover, who could not be reached by DH, told Moneycontrol that the process of initiating actions against him was a sham.

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