Amid the recent controversy let’s take a look at the journey of Ashneer Grover.
Ashneer Grover served as BharatPe’s Managing Director and Co-Founder until February 28, 2022, when he was forced to leave and relinquish his roles in the firm. In 2018, he co-founded the firm with Shashvat Nakrani. Within four years, they had transformed BharatPe into one of India’s most popular payment applications. Ashneer Grover was also a member of the Shark Tank India judging panel. His net worth is estimated to be about INR 700 crores.
Ashneer Grover had a fantastic start in terms of school, job, and business, but he also experienced several hurdles along the way. This page covers the whole narrative of Ashneer Grover, from his early life and profession to the latest issues and obstacles he has experienced.
Ashneer Grover’s Personal Life
On June 14, 1982, Ashneer Grover was born in Delhi. His father was a Chartered Accountant, while his mother taught. The family was doing well because his parents were in good jobs. He earned degrees from prestigious institutions such as IIT and IIM.
Madhuri Jain Grover is Ashneer Grover’s wife. She is an entrepreneur who runs the Delhi-based furniture store Mauve and Brown. Madhuri Grover, Ashneer Grover’s wife, was in charge of HR, finance, and other internal operations at BharatPe before she was identified as one of the workers implicated in financial fraud and was subsequently fired by the Board. The couple has two kids.
Ashneer grover’s educational qualification
Ashneer Grover finished his education in Delhi. He then earned a B.Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). He was chosen for a student exchange programme with the National Institute of Applied Sciences, popularly known as INSA Lyon, in France during his stay at IIT Delhi. It is one of Europe’s largest and most prestigious engineering schools.
He began his studies at INSA Lyon in 2002, thanks to a €6,000 grant from the French Embassy. Grover attended the India Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad for his MBA in Finance after graduating from IIT. In 2006, he graduated from the IIM.
Founding BharatPe
Ashneer Grover was hired as Vice President of Kotak Finance Banking through campus placements at IIM. He has worked with Kotak since 2006, approximately 7 years.
Ashneer began working for American Express (AmEx), a credit card services corporation, in mid-2013 and stayed for two years. He was appointed as AmEx’s Director of Corporate Development. Ashneer joined Grofers as Chief Financial Officer after leaving American Express in 2015. Blinkit is the new name for the firm.
Later that year, Ashneer was hired as the Head of New Business at PC Jeweller, where he stayed for precisely a year. By 2018, Ashneer Grover has founded his own firm, BharatPe.
Ashneer Grover chose to establish his own firm after amassing 12 years of expertise from various occupations. His experience as the head of business development and payments at PC Jeweller inspired him to launch a payments startup. In 2018, Ashneer partnered with Shashvat Nakrani to launch BharatPe.
They collaborated to build the fintech firm from the ground up and add many services to its main operation. BharatPe now includes UPI payments, QR codes for transactions, POS machines for card payments, a 12 percent Club investment and loan app, and digital gold transactions.
Ashneer said in Shark Tank India that while BharatPe was a $30 million firm, he received a $50 million offer from Google Pay, but he declined to close a deal with the latter. Grover subsequently said that he knew he was intended for something large, which is something that all entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs should strive for, and BharatPe is now valued at more than $3 billion.
In addition, they received RBI permission for small company finance in partnership with Centrum Financial Services Ltd. Ashneer Grover has made BharatPe one of the most popular payment applications in the country by providing a wide range of options.
Recent controversy and resignation
Grover resigned from the startup this week, bringing the controversy to a close. BharatPe said in a statement that it “reserves all rights to take further legal action against him and his family.” His presence on the website has been erased.
Grover said that the allegations against him, including that he stole business money to support a lavish lifestyle, are motivated by “personal hatred and low thinking.” “The only thing lavish about me is my dreams and ability to achieve them against all odds through hard work and enterprise,” he said in a statement published to Bloomberg.
The dramatic confrontation between Grover and his colleagues happens at the peak, or possibly the beginning, of a boom for India’s startup culture.
Over the last several years, hard-charging entrepreneurs have pushed into undeveloped market segments such as e-commerce, online teaching, and digital health services. Investors focused on record-breaking initial public offerings and a flood of foreign money routed to India as China put walls around its economy, rather than on obnoxious conduct or personnel issues.
The resignation of Ashneer Grover
Grover’s world had begun to shatter by January.
The audio recording, which had been shared on Twitter, quickly went popular among the country’s IT sector. In it, someone who sounds like Grover scolds a Kotak Bank employee for failing to arrange funds to purchase IPO shares of Nykaa, an Indian beauty supply firm that nearly quadrupled in value following its offering. While the bank staff answers mostly polite inquiries, the tape is sprinkled with Hindi slurs. Grover disputed that the voice was his on Twitter. That tweet was eventually taken off.
In general, “once in a while, the wild streak could land the founder in extreme territory,” according to Krishnan Ganesh, who has invested in dozens of firms, including online supermarket Bigbasket, which was recently acquired.
Grover’s conduct then took another strange turn, according to coworkers. He sent the board and Bloomberg a dossier that linked Sameer, the CEO, to a slew of allegations of misbehaviour. BharatPe has not to respond to these allegations. Sameer was not available for remark.
PricewaterhouseCoopers and Alvarez & Marsal were hired by investors to investigate Grover’s money handling. BharatPe’s board of directors issued a statement in early March accusing Grover, his family, and relatives of establishing bogus suppliers to syphon cash and misusing expense accounts “in order to enrich themselves and fund their lavish lifestyles.”
“I am appalled at the personal nature of the company’s statement, but not surprised,” Grover said in a statement to Bloomberg, adding that his fortune was earned in part through the sale of $12 million in shares.
The public unravelling has fascinated investors throughout India. Many consider the drama to be a cautionary tale about what happens when a skilled but unpredictable leader chases money at any cost. Nonetheless, Grover has taken the blows in stride.
“Founder is a guy with the guts to raise money from someone and tell them I’m not here to dance to their tunes,” he said last month on LinkedIn. Hundreds of his followers loved and appreciated the post’s audacity.
Fellow startup entrepreneurs in India, on the other hand, were not so kind.
“No offence, but you seem to have completely lost the plot,” said Shantanu Deshpande, the founder and CEO of Bombay Shaving Company, a business that sells grooming goods.
