BharatPe clarifies Suhail Sameer to continue as CEO after speculation around his exit

Suhail Sameer, CEO, BharatPe.

Payments and financial services player BharatPe has clarified that Suhail Sameer will continue to lead the company as CEO after speculation on social media platforms around his exit.

"The BharatPe CEO continues to be Suhail Sameer and the company strongly denies any rumours to the contrary," the firm said in a statement.

"There has been some speculation on social media platforms regarding the same and we urge the media not to speculate based on uninformed sources," the statement added.

This comes at a time when the Sequoia-backed startup is in the midst of an internal investigation into alleged corporate governance lapses.

The company announced on January 19 that co-founder Ashneer Grover had decided to go on voluntary leave after he was purportedly heard using inappropriate words and threatening a Kotak Group employee in a leaked audio clip for failing to secure allotment and funding for the Nykaa IPO for him and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover.

Grover and his wife had also sent a legal notice to Kotak Mahindra Bank's managing director Uday Kotak accusing the group of not securing the allotment and seeking compensation for the gains he would have made through the listing.

Moneycontrol also reported on January 28 that Madhuri Jain Grover who is the head of controls at BharatPe too went on voluntary leave amid the investigation.

These instances have forced BharatPe's board to look into larger issues within the company including invoices possibly being over-inflated and some vendors possibly being fake, Moneycontrol had reported.