BharatPe's Ashneer Grover announces voluntary leave of absence till March-end

BharatPe co-founder and managing director (MD) Ashneer Grover on Wednesday announced that he is taking a voluntary leave of absence from the company till March-end. 

"For now, the Board has accepted Ashneer’s decision which we agree is in the best interests of the company, our employees and investors, and the millions of merchants we support each day," the company said in a statement.

In the meantime, the company will be led by CEO Suhail Sameer, it further stated.

In a later development, Grover also tweeted his leave absence from his personal handle, saying that he will be back on 1 April, 2022.

"I've been relentlessly working at building up BharatPe for 4 years...I plan to take a temporary leave of absence from BharatPe till March end. I will return on or before April 1, 2022," parts of the the letter he posted on Twitter read.

Grover's sudden leave from the company comes amid an ongoing tussle between Grover and his wife, and Kotak Mahindra Bank. The controversy stated that he allegedly used inappropriate language against Kotak Group staff.

A viral audio clip claimed that Grover verbally abused a bank employee for not getting share allotment in Nykaa's initial public offering (IPO). 

Grover and Shashvat Nakrani had co-founded BharatPe in 2018. BharatPe serves over 75 lakh merchants across 150 cities. The company has already facilitated the disbursement of loans totalling over Rs 3,000 crore to its merchants since its launch.

BharatPe has raised over $650 million in equity and debt, till date. Its investors include Tiger Global, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital, Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital and others.