SUMMARY
BharatPe cofounder Ashneer Grover has taken a voluntary leave of absence from the company till March 2022
But given the slew of controversies involving Grover in recent months, it would appear that the cofounder has been ousted after a board decision
The bigger questions in the wake of the controversy are around corporate governance and how a culture of a company impacts its public perception
Between allegations of abusing and threatening Kotak Mahindra Bank employees, social media outrage over some of his comments to founders on Shark Tank India and an alleged spat with key investors and board members, BharatPe cofounder Ashneer Grover has taken a leave of absence from the company till March 2022.
In an official statement, BharatPe said, “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.”
In another report, BharatPe CEO Suhail Sameer said Grover wanted to resolve his tussle with Kotak Mahindra Bank amicably without any impact on BharatPe. He added that Grover continues to be the board member but is not going to get involved in day-to-day operations. Grover also posted on LinkedIn that he will be back from leave on April 1, 2022.
Given the slew of controversies involving Grover, it appears that the cofounder has been ousted from the company after a board decision.
While the company says it was Grover’s ‘decision’ that the board agreed with, as is typical with high-level oustings — particularly, founders — dismissal announcements are carefully manicured to protect reputations on all sides.
For instance, in 2018, ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar was asked to go on indefinite leave during an independent enquiry into alleged cases of impropriety involving her. The decision to ask Kochhar to go on leave was taken by the bank’s board after much public pressure.
On a related note, an ET report this week claims that in August 2020, Grover was also involved in heated email exchanges with the company’s lead investor Sequoia Capital. Sequoia invested in two rounds for BharatPe since those email exchanges, and the VC giant claimed that any issues with Grover were eventually resolved soon after those emails.
The bigger questions in the wake of the controversy are around corporate governance and how a culture of a company impacts its public perception. We’ll unpack these questions and more, but first let’s understand what actually went wrong over the past few months at BharatPe.
Ashneer Grover Vs Kotak Mahindra Bank
Arguably, the biggest factor behind this apparent ousting is the potential of a big lawsuit impacting Grover personally. Grover had sent a legal notice to Kotak Mahindra Bank last year accusing the bank of failing to secure financing and allocation of shares in the hugely successful Nykaa IPO, despite allegedly indicating that it could provide the financing.
Grover and his wife Madhuri Grover are seeking damages worth INR 500 Cr. The duo sent a legal notice in October 2021 to Kotak Mahindra Bank’s MD and CEO Uday Kotak, as well as other upper management employees of the bank and its wealth management, consumer banking and corporate, institutional & investment banking divisions.
The legal notice, which Kotak Mahindra has responded to, surfaced a week after a leaked audio clip in which Ashneer Grover is heard hurling abuses and threats. His wife Madhuri Grover is also heard on the alleged recording of the call (which is now deleted).
While Grover had claimed that the clip is fake and part of an extortion scheme, Kotak Mahindra Bank’s response, which says that the bank had placed on record Grover’s abusive language, seemingly authenticated the clip.
Soon after Kotak’s response was publicly disclosed, there were murmurs of emergency board meetings at the company, and then reports about Grover’s past run-ins with investors.
