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.

Grover's sudden leave from the company comes amid the controversy over his alleged use of 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). 

To that, the BharatPe co-founder had issued a statement saying that the clip was ''fake'' and is an attempt for extorting money.

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.