Ashneer Grover on his ₹500 Case Full Story The Real Shark Tank #sharktankindiashow  #ashneergrover
Channel: wellwisher 1111
Date: 24/11/2022

NEW DELHI: BharatPe cofounder Ashneer Grover has demanded a payout of Rs 4,000 crore from investors to buy out his stake if they want him to exit the company despite being accused of financial fraud. 
 The latest is that he has already held talks to sell his 9.5% stake in the fintech startup, which could pave the way for his full exit rather than being embroiled in a long, legal battle with the board members. Sequoia Capital India, Coatue Management and Ribbit Capital are the three largest shareholders of BharatPe and hold right of first refusal (rofr) on founder’s shares and tag along rights.
What is BharatPe?BharatPe was founded in 2018 and offers a range of fintech products that cater to small merchants and also helps them accept digital payments. . BharatPe has faciliated the disbursement of loans totalling over Rs 3,000 crore to its merchants since its launch.
 Grover had spent his initial years as an investment banker at Kotak Bank and later served as the chief financial officer at Grofers. Coming from an investment banking background, Grover scaled his fintech’s valuation to almost $2.85 billion within four years of launch and raised more than $600 million in equity funding from top funds, including Sequoia Capital India, Coatue Management, Insight Partners, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital and Tiger Global. BharatPe has also got an in-principal small finance bank licence, through a joint venture with Mumbai-based Centrum Financial Services, to take over the cooperative lender Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank and relaunch a small finance bank.
 So what really happened?
It all began with an audio leakOn January 19, Ashneer Grover, cofounder and managing director of BharatPe, took voluntary leave until the end of March. The voluntary leave came two weeks after after a recording of a phone conversation was leaked online in which a man, alleged to be Grover, could be heard abusing and threatening an employee of Kotak Mahindra Bank after missing out on the IPO allotment for Nykaa’s initial public offering despite being promised one. While Ashneer first termed it as a “fake audio by some scamster trying to extort funds, he later deleted the tweet. Kotak Mahindra Bank is now pursuing legal action against Ashneer over “inappropriate language” used against their employee.
 Toxic work cultureIndustry experts were quick to point out that apart from the Kotak controversy, concerns were growing about the toxic work culture at BharatPe, along with Grover’s presence on start-up TV show Shark Tank when some of his comments to entrepreneurs pitching for funds sounded rather rude and harsh. Reports also said that due to his headstrong personality, he was made to step back from his role as the CEO and made the MD. Some media reports also suggested that due to foul and aggressive language becoming the norm at BharatPe, there was an exodus of top-level talent from the company.