BharatPe, the year 2022 began on a explosive note round a leaked audio clip featuring former cofounder and then managing director Ashneer Grover. Early in January 2022, an audio clip allegedly of Mr. Grover abusing an employee of Kotak Mahindra Bank for failing to secure funds to buy shares of Nykaa during the company’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) surfaced online. The BharatPe co-founder reacted to the audio clip by calling it fake. On January 9, 2022, the lender said that it will take legal action against Mr. Grover. Following the controversy, the company announced that Mr. Grover had taken voluntary leave till the end of March. Mr. Grover also appeared on a television reality show promoting entrepreneurship in India that was telecast around the same time when the controversy boiled over, attracting even more public attention. The BharatPe co-founder was seen as an excessively rude and harsh judge on the show and his behaviour raised questions about the possibility of a toxic work culture at his company.
BharatPe has over 75 lakh merchants using its services across 150 cities. The company was co-founded by Mr. Grover and Shashvat Nakrani in 2018 and offers fintech products like interoperable QR codes for payments and small business financing. The company has facilitated the disbursement of loans of over ₹3,000 crore to its merchants since its launch. BharatPe has also raised $ 178 million in equity and debt, to date.The company is currently valued at $2.8 billion. Leaving the Ashneer Grover controversy behind, fintech platform BharatPe has closed one of the highest growth quarters in its history, facilitating over Rs 3,600 crore in loans in the first quarter (April-June period) of FY23. The company facilitated disbursals to over 1.2 lakh merchants in Q1, FY23, up from 66,000 merchants in the last quarter of FY22.