Exclusive: BharatPe CEO Suhail Sameer says Ashneer Grover on "leave" but continues on board​

BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover

After BharatPe announced that founder and Managing Director Ashneer Grover is taking a leave of absence till March this year, CEO Suhail Sameer, now in charge of the reins of the company has told Moneycontrol that this is an opportunity for Grover to introspect.

Grover's leave comes after an audio clip of him allegedly using abusive language against an employee of the Kotak Group emerged on social media. In the audio, the BharatPe founder was heard blaming the employee and the group for not providing financing and subscription for him and his wife Madhuri Grover during the initial public offering of Nykaa.

In an exclusive conversation with Moneycontrol, Sameer clarified that Grover is only on leave and there is no plan for to exit.

"Ashneer continues to be a board member, but he is not going to be involved in day to day operations. There is no chance of an eventual exit. He is not going anywhere, he is integral to BharatPe," Sameer said.

Post the announcement of Grover's leave, the startup's top management, including Grover himself conducted a townhall with employees in a bid to allay their fears.

"We conducted a 30-minute townhall which was attended by 500 employees," Sameer said.

Moneycontrol had also reported how BharatPe's investors and board members had been unanimously insisting that Grover needs to be off the scene for some time.

"Ashneer was the first one to suggest an exit, we kept on rejecting his suggestion," according to Sameer.

In late 2020, Suhail Sameer, a consumer goods veteran joined BharatPe and became its CEO, handling daily operations, leaving Grover to oversee fundraising and big picture plans.

Grover’s fortunes have rapidly unravelled in the last two weeks, from being recognised as the founder of one of India’s hottest startups, one which became worth $3 billion in 3 years, to being squarely blamed on social media and by fellow investors and founders for all that is wrong with the Indian startup ecosystem- harsh treatment of people, large funding rounds for unsustainable businesses and a punishing win-at-all-costs culture.

Grover's claims that the leaked audio was fake also turned questionable after Moneycontrol reported that a legal notice was sent by Grover and his wife's legal representatives to Kotak Mahindra Bank's managing director and chief executive officer Uday Kotak and other senior Group executives on October 30, 2021.

Kotak Group had also responded to the reports confirming that they had received the legal notice and objected to inappropriate language used by Grover, confirming that the phone call was in fact real.