Ashneer Grover To Start Another Business Venture Without Seeking Funds From Investors The co-founder and former managing director of BharatPe had a public fallout with the board of directors of the company
By S Shanthi
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Ashneer Grover, co-founder and former managing director of fintech platform BharatPe, has said he is planning to start his own business venture. He also said he wants to make a profit in the new business without seeking funds from investors. However, Grover didn't share any details about the business.
"I wish to start my own venture with my own money and make it profitable," said the Shark Tank judge during the recent TiECon-2022 startup and entrepreneurial event in Chandigarh.
He added that he doesn't want to go to the investors again and that his tussle with BharatPe was a badly fought corporate battle.
Grover had a public fallout with the board of directors of the company and eventually decided to leave BharatPe.
This is what happened. Nearly two months since the audio clip of Grover allegedly verbally abusing a Kotak Mahindra Bank employee during a phone call was leaked and days after BharatPe sacked his wife, Madhuri Jain Grover, for alleged financial irregularities, Grover resigned as the managing director and board director of BharatPe on March 1, 2022.
"I write this with a heavy heart as today I am being forced to bid adieu to a company of which I am a founder. I say with my head held high that today this company stands as a leader in the fintech world. Since the beginning of 2022, unfortunately, I've been embroiled in baseless and targeted attacks on me and my family by a few individuals who are ready not only to harm me and my reputation but also harm the reputation of the company, which ostensibly they are trying to protect," Grover said in a letter addressed to the BharatPe board.
In April, Grover also demanded the resignation of Rajnish Kumar, chairman of the board, and accused CEO Suhail Sameer of blatant defamation. The letter was written in response to a comment made by Sameer on LinkedIn to Grover's sister Aashima Grover, who had made a comment on a post by a former employee in the admin team who was terminated without reason and whose salary was not paid for months. "Aashima Behen- tere bhai ne saara Paisa Chura liya. Very little left to pay salaries," Sameer had responded. The comment attracted immediate backlash from social media users and media outlets, and Sameer released an apology.
For this, Grover wrote in the letter: "Suhail's reply is not only blatantly defamatory, it is inappropriate language towards any female on social media and tone-deaf to the trials of a poor admin-level employee seeking his dues. It is also a blatantly public lie and admission of the Company being bankrupt by no less than its own CEO and member of the Board - the same Suhail Sameer had less than a couple of months ago claimed more than US$ 500 million in the bank account of the Company,"
