Boardroom battle | A 10-point summary of latest developments in Ashneer Grover-BharatPe saga

Ashneer Grover says the only thing lavish about him are his dreams.

It has been a chaotic 24 hours of mudslinging and verbal war for the embattled co-founder of BharatPe, Ashneer Grover, and his four-year-old company. Grover is currently embroiled in a bitter battle with the board and management of the fintech firm.

Grover tendered his resignation in a tersely worded letter, where he noted that he and his family were being “vilified and treated in the most disgraceful manner”.

“From being celebrated as the face of Indian entrepreneurship I am now wasting my time fighting a long, lonely battle against my own investors and management. Unfortunately, in this battle, the management has lost what is actually at stake – BharatPe," Grover wrote in his letter.

“You treat us Founders as slaves – pushing us to build multi-billion-dollar businesses and cutting us down at will. Investor-Founder relation in India is one of Master-Slave. I am the rebel slave who must be hung by the tree so none of the other slaves can dare to be like me ever again. Unfortunately, I refuse to walk that path and refuse to tolerate this continuous and shameful vilification of me and my family. I have been the one who founded this company and built it up to its enviable position today, no wonder you want to oust me for your vested interests,” the letter dated March 1, 2022, read.

Post its internal investigative meeting on March 1, BharatPe on March 2 released a statement, which raises serious allegations of company fund misappropriation against the Grover family. The board constituted for the governance review was led by former SBI chairman and veteran banker Rajnish Kumar.

Here is your 10-point cheatsheet on all the developments:

1. Per the BharatPe statement, "The Grover family and their relatives engaged in extensive misappropriation of company funds, including, but not limited to, creating fake vendors through which they siphoned money away from the company’s expense account and grossly abused company expense accounts in order to enrich themselves and fund their lavish lifestyles."

2. While the company emphasised that it reserves all the rights to take further legal action against him and his family, reflective of an impending, protracted legal battle, the note clearly said that “Mr. Grover is no longer an employee, a founder, or a director of the company”, severely diminishing his role and stature in the company.

3. The meeting developments also revealed that Grover had sent in his resignation minutes after he “received notice that some of the results of the inquiry would be presented to the Board”. Reportedly, “he quickly shirked responsibility by sending an email to the Board submitting his resignation and fabricating another false narrative of the events to the public."

4. BharatPe also addressed their resentment to the narrative being established by Grover in the public eye, noting that it “has taken strong objection to Mr. Grover spinning lies and hurling baseless allegations and threats” against Rajnish Kumar, investors Sequoia Capital, and more.

5. In the same note, BharatPe acknowledged the collective efforts of its team, stating that “The success of BharatPe is a result of the collective effort of a large team of dedicated and talented professionals and not anyone individual”.

6. To further strengthen its governance processes, the BharatPe board is also reportedly “taking all necessary steps to further strengthen the company’s corporate governance, including the appointment of an audit committee, an internal auditor, and the implementation of other key internal controls”

7. Ashneer responded vociferously, expressing his appalment but lack of surprise at the “personal nature of the company’s statement”. He said that the only thing lavish about him are his dreams and “ability to achieve them against all odds through hard work and enterprise”.

8. “I would  want to learn who among Amarchand, PwC and A&M (Alvarez and Marsal) i.e. the companies involved in the governance audit has started doing an audit on ‘lavishness’ of one’s lifestyle?" he hit back

9. According to him, the company’s counter-response comes from a place of “personal hatred and low-thinking”, calling the entire investigation process a “sham”.

10. "The whole process is a sham. You have decided what you want. There is no consideration for any process. You are just going after me, my wife, my whole family. Have you even called me once? Have the investors even spoken to me even once? What kind of a process is this where the chairman of SBI can't run a confidential process for a month? " he signed off.