Ashneer Grover-BharatPe The saga took a big turn late on Monday (February 28). Grover has sent his resignation to the company’s board. His resignation comes days after his wife Madhuri Jaini The company’s controlling head was fired on charges of fraud.
In the letter, Grover says he is stepping down amid an ongoing investigation into financial fraud at the company. “I write this with a heavy heart because today I am being forced to say goodbye to a company of which I am the founder. I say with my head held high that this company is today as a leader in the world of fintech. Right from the beginning in 2022, unfortunately, I and my family have been embroiled in baseless and targeted attacks by some who are ready to harm not only me and my reputation, but the reputation of the company which they are apparently trying to protect.
Here is the full text of the letter as it appeared in The Economic Times.
Dear Board,
I write this with a heavy heart because today I am forced to say goodbye to a company of which I am the founder. Let me say with my head held high that today this company stands as a leader in the world of fintech. Since the beginning of 2022, unfortunately, I have been embroiled in baseless and targeted attacks on me and my family by some who are set to harm not only me and my reputation, but also the reputation of the company harm, which apparently they do. trying to save.
To be famous as the face of Indian entrepreneurship and as an inspiration to Indian youth to build their own business, I find myself doomed to fight a long, lonely battle against my investors and management. Unfortunately, in this fight the management has lost what is really at stake – BharatPe,
Those who know me and have worked closely with me know that I believe in creation – no matter what. I am an IIT Delhi – IIM Ahmedabad graduate, which is the best the Indian education system has to offer. I am a child of middle-class parents who have imbibed in me the values of hard work, integrity and honesty. I am a professional with an impeccable track record who has been instrumental in building two unicorn businesses, namely Grofers and BharatPe. I have encouraged the youth of this country to not only fulfill their dreams, but also to create a slew of employment opportunities for thousands of gig-economy workers in India. I take pride in the fact that my journey and growth is not limited to just me, but has also encompassed the people associated with me professionally and personally. In my endeavor to promote and develop the start-up ecosystem in our country, I have invested back whatever I have earned and helped many people along the way.
I have brought up Bharatpe as my child. I built this with my co-founder and an amazing team of individuals. Most of the times the conditions were unfavourable (to say the least) but that didn’t stop me. BharatPe was the last entrant in the UPI space and competed with tablets like Paytm, PhonePe and GooglePay – but it still emerged as a leader in the industry. I had a vision to intercept the payment with ‘0% MDR’, ‘Loan Against Payment’ to the shopkeeper, P2P with ‘12% Club’ and BNPL with ‘Postpay’. With my efforts and hard work, the company has built a network of over 1 crore (10 million) shopkeepers, who do over Rs 100,000 crore ($16B) transactions annually and Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 4,000 crore) as loans. $0.5B). It is undeniable that BharatPe loans have helped millions of small businesses organize e-commerce and fight COVID.
The most important and only time for any fintech in India – with my continuous efforts the company has obtained a small finance bank license to create ‘Unity Small Finance Bank’. I have shown enthusiasm and intent to find a solution to PMC Bank and its one million depositors to give back their hard earned money.
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 five hundred on-roll employees, total spend of less than US$150 million, and raising US$615 million from ten major investors without using a single banker, BharatPe has a success story to watch. for everyone. While scripting BharatPe’s commercial success, the company was also providing liquidity of over Rs 100 crore to our employees against their ESOPs and at least eighty times returns to each of its twenty eight angel investors. While the company was valued at Rs 20,000 crore (US$3B) as per the Series E round; Today it will be valued at Rs 40,000 crore (US$6B) in less than a year. BharatPe has achieved what no other startup of similar valuation has been able to achieve today, that too by using less than Rs 1,000 crore. Obviously, the success story of BharatPe is in front of the world.
Am I omnipotent? As every other human being does, I’m sure I have my faults. I’ve been told that I’m pretty straight forward, stubborn, and have very demanding standards when it comes to work. But due to these qualities, BharatPe has grown exponentially to become an industry giant. Unfortunately, what has happened in the recent past appears to be a battle of ego being played out in the gallery of the media under the guise of “good governance”.
The basic fact is that as an investor you are so far from all reality that you have forgotten what a real business looks like and have no appreciation for what it took to run this venture day in and day out. Your approach towards BharatPe is limited to the small window of your Zoom Meetings application, which is far from the sweat that goes into making BharatPe a business leader. None of you, including those based in India, have visited our office even once, as the pandemic turned our lives upside down and tried to suffocate the economy. Not even once. Not Mickey. Not Harshjit. Not fascinated Not Teru San. Not Rahul. Not Deven. None. Despite the invitation to open our new office, none of you came. In this way you are connected with BharatPe.
Your thoughts about businesses and the problems on the ground are so colored by the windows of the ivory tower in which you all live that you have no relation to the human element of business. It is sad that you have also lost contact with the founder. You have lost contact with me. For you, the founder of this company has been reduced to one button to press when you need it. I stop being a human for you. Today, you have chosen to believe the gossip and rumours about me instead of talking openly. You get nervous so easily because you have no contact with reality.
The fact is that today you believe that I have served my utility and therefore gradually I am becoming a liability. And since the investor template for shooing away an unwanted founder is to make them the villain of the piece, that’s what you did by going ahead – “Let’s call the SHA. Let’s send him on leave under the pretext of reviewing the regime. Let’s go to his wife’s job.” Finish it. Let’s defame his entire clan. We as investors are at the top of the food chain – let’s cut him to size and make an example of that.
When you wanted to take advantage of my private network, you used to be very happy to do so – today I am being slandered and treated in the most shameful way.
You enslave us founders – drive us to build multi-billion dollar businesses and cut us off at will. Investor-founder relationship in India is one of master-slave. I am a rebellious slave who must be hung from a tree so that no other slave can dare to be like me.
Unfortunately, I refuse to walk that path and refuse to tolerate this constant and shameful humiliation of myself and my family. I am the one who founded this company and made it to its remarkable position today, no wonder you want to exclude me for your vested interests.
So when will we end this? We end this now. While I agree that you will not find a single unseemly act against me, I will not participate in your chariot. Since you clearly believe you can run this company better without me – I’m leaving this challenge to you. Also incrementally create half of the value I’ve created so far – I’m leaving with you three times the money I’ve used so far. I hereby resign as the Managing Director of BharatPe with immediate effect. I have also resigned as Director of the Board. I will continue as the single largest individual shareholder of the Company.
I founded and built BharatPe as it is today, and this identity, none of you, can take away from me.
Regards,
Ashneer Grover