Bengaluru, April 7

Amid the ongoing BharatPe saga, its former co-founder and MD Ashneer Grover has said that the company recorded its highest cash burn in the quarter ended March. He called out the BharatPe leadership on the company’s performance and said “markets are the ultimate test and truth.” 

In a twitter post on Thursday, Grover said: “So I just heard @bharatpeindia (BharatPe) closed its first quarter of ‘degrowth’ and ‘maximum cash burn’ under able (sic) leadership of Rajnish Kumar and Suhail Sameer. ‘Chaabi chheenna and hatti chalana do alag alag skills hai!’ Ab Nani yaad aayegi (Snatching keys and running a business are two different skills, this will make you remember your grandmother) - markets are the ultimate test & truth.”

These allegations come at a time when BharatPe has completed its governance review and  the company is eyeing an IPO in the next 18 to 24 months. BharatPe said it has $400 million in the bank, and the monthly burn is $4 million. The company exited March 2022 with about $100 million in revenues, which is said to have grown 4x in FY22 compared to FY21.

For March, it recorded 39 per cent month-on-month growth in consumer TPV, 31 per cent growth in loans facilitated for merchants and consumer, and 17 per cent growth in merchant TPV.

Unpaid salary

Earlier in the day, in a Linkedin post, Karan Sarki, senior associate IT at BharatPe, wrote that the old admin staff at BharatPe haven’t been paid salary for March despite them sending multiple emails and visiting the office. He also added that several of the old admin staff have been terminated by the company and their salaries have not being paid.  “We have been spending our own money for the company’s petty cash and our reimbursement bills have not been paid since December. While some are enjoying office-paid trip to Goa we are fighting for our salaries and job. What kind of leaders you are,” he added.  

Responding to this, a BharatPe spokesperson said, “BharatPe strongly denies any social media comments which suggest that the company has not paid salaries to its employees. All the employees of the company have been paid their March salary in full. As per the company policy, employees serving their notice period will receive their full and final settlement amount in the due course as per company policy.”

Notice from Ministry

BharatPe is also reported to have received a notice from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs seeking information about the company’s operations, former co-founder Bhavik Koladiya’s share in the company, among other things.  Interestingly, Grover recently told a publication that Koladiya’s stake in BharatPe was bought by him, Shashvat Nakrani, Sequoia Capital and BEENEXT. 

In terms of shareholding, Sequoia Capital (19.6 per cent), Coatue (12.4 per cent) and Ribbit Capital (11.0 per cent) hold the largest individual stakes in the fintech start-up. Ashneer Grover holds about 9.5 per cent stake. 

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Published on April 7, 2022