BharatPe appoints former Reckitt global executive Smriti Handa as Chief Human Resources Officer

Smriti Handa, Chief Human Resources Officer, BharatPe.

Payments and lending fintech BharatPe on April 19 appointed former Reckitt executive Smriti Handa as its Chief Human Resources Officer, the startup's first key leadership appointment after the exit of founder Ashneer Grover.

Grover and his wife, Madhuri Jain Grover, left the company amid allegations of misappropriation of funds and encouraging a toxic work culture, making Handa's appointment crucial for the company as it aims to reform its workplace.

“At BharatPe, the team is our biggest asset and hence, culture is key for us as we build BharatPe 2.0. With Smriti on board with us to lead the people function, we are looking forward to preparing ourselves for the next level of growth for the brand," CEO Suhail Sameer said in a statement.

BharatPe said that Handa will work closely with the senior leadership team and focus on strengthening the organisational culture and HR practices.

"With Smriti joining our team, we are confident that she will be able to implement the right processes and programmes that will create an environment that attracts, retains and develops high potential talent at BharatPe," Sameer added.

Handa is an alumnus of SRCC, Delhi University and MDI, Gurgaon. In a career spanning over 16 years, she has worked with Reckitt, Philips and Airtel in global and local roles.

Handa was HR Head at Reckitt Hygiene-SoA before taking over as the Global Talent Acquisition Director.

"Given the company’s journey so far, my immediate focus would be on creating purpose-led leadership and a performance-driven culture while retaining the soul and the spirit of this entrepreneurial, fast-paced setup. As we work towards creating a culture where diverse talent flourishes, we would ensure we leverage the power of our internal talent and attract external high potentials," Handa said.

In a recent interview to Moneycontrol, Sameer said that the company had taken steps to make it a more supportive workplace after Grover's exit, including an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) for all employees.

"We have also incorporated basic hygiene things like including wellness, gym memberships, changes in insurance coverage, etc. These are small things to drive trust. We have done a lot of interventions as well to crowdsource the culture we want to build and that will hopefully reflect over the next few days. A lot of people try to set culture top down, but that’s not what we want to create at BharatPe," Sameer had said.

He had added that regardless of what is right or wrong, Grover had a different view of how HR should be managed, and current initiatives were a diversion from how he used to head HR.

Hunt for CFO on

The company which plans to go public in the next 18 to 24 months is also in the process of finding a Chief Financial Officer.

The startup's largest investor Sequoia Capital recently broke its silence over the BharatPe saga in a recent blog post, saying would continue to respond to wilful misconduct and frauds strongly.

Sequoia's post on the need for better governance came after several of its portfolio companies—from BharatPe and Trell to Zilingo—have seen trouble in recent months, prompting larger questions on the funding frenzy fuelled growth and expansion without adequate oversight in the Indian startup ecosystem.