BharatPe appoints early investor Insight Partners' lawyer on its board

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BharatPe has appointed John Weinstein, principal and deputy general counsel of its early backer Insight Partners on its board at a time when the tussle with founder Ashneer Grover continues to broil.

Weinstein's name was included in a fresh list of board of directors which the company shared with Moneycontrol on February 8.

Besides Weinstein, the board continues to have Rajnish Kumar as an independent director and chairman. Others on the board include names like Rahul Kishore, senior managing director of Coatue Management, Harshjit Sethi, managing director of Sequoia Capital India, Kewal Kundanlal Handa, independent director, Meyer Malka, managing partner at Ribbit Capital besides the founders Grover and Shashvat Nakrani and the chief executive Suhail Sameer.

Insight Partners had invested in BharatPe in 2019 and has around 10 percent stake in the fintech which of late has been in deep troubles following a spat with Grover.

Interestingly, this happens around a time when Grover said he had withdrawn his nomination for Sameer seeking his removal from the board. Sameer sits on the board as a joint nominee of the co-founders.

Grover had alleged that Sameer had sided with the investors at a time when he needed him the most as a result of which he had lost confidence in him.

However, in the same week Nakrani issued a statement expressing his support for Sameer as a result of which the latter continues to enjoy the board position.

While Grover has alleged that the board is arm twisting him into exiting the company, the board said it was "deeply pained" that the integrity of the board or individual board members was being questioned time and again.

The company is going through a governance review and has hired Alwarez and Marsal and consultancy firm PwC for the same. While a leaked preliminary report suggests financial irregularities, the board has denied it has received any report on governance review so far.