“I write this with a heavy heart as today I am being forced to bid adieu to a company of which I am a founder. I say with my head held high that today this company stands as a leader in the fintech world. Since the beginning of 2022, unfortunately, I’ve been embroiled in baseless and targeted attacks on me and my family by a few individuals who are ready not only to harm me and my reputation but also harm the reputation of the company, which they are ostensibly trying to protect.”
Grover said that from being celebrated as the face of Indian entrepreneurship he is now wasting his time fighting a long, lonely battle against his own investors and management. Unfortunately, in this battle, the management has lost what is actually at stake – BharatPe, he said
Grover’s resignation comes on the back of Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC)
rejecting Grover’s emergency plea, last week, against the ongoing ‘governance review’ within the company, giving him no relief in the matter.
“ ..It is sad that you have even lost touch with the founder. For you, the founder of the company has been reduced to a button to be pressed when needed. I cease to be a human for you. Today, you have chosen to believe in gossip and rumours about me instead of having a frank conversation,” said Grover while referring to the board.
ET has seen a copy of the resignation which was emailed to the BharatPe board on March 1, at midnight.
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Grover further blamed BharatPe’s investors to be so ‘far removed’ from reality that they’ve ‘forgotten what real businesses look like’.
“The fact of the matter is that today you believe that I have served my utility and so incrementally I am just becoming a liability. And since the investor template to make an unwanted founder go away is to make them the villain of the piece, that’s what you have gone and done … Today I am being vilified and treated in the most disgraceful manner,” added Grover in his letter.
He further went on to allege that the company’s investors and board treats founders as ‘slaves’, cutting ‘founders as will’.
Grover had announced on January 19, that he was taking “voluntary leave” of absence from the company he cofounded, until the end of March, this year.
ETtechSettlement talks continue
Grover’s resignation comes at a time when settlement talks between Grover and BharatPe’s board continue, people aware of the discussion confirmed. ET had first reported on February 22, citing sources, that Grover had
sought indemnity from any future action against him in his ongoing settlement discussions with the fintech firm and its shareholders.
People aware of the goings-on added that Grover is actively signaling his intent for a settlement with the board and the company in these conversations, ET had reported earlier.
Grover had been very vocal of his demands in the past from BharatPe’s investors, and had asked for Rs 4,000 crore to buyout his 9.5% stake in the company.
Madhuri Jain sacked
Last week, ET had broken the news on February 23, that BharatPe had
sacked BharatPe controller and Grover’s wife Madhuri Jain, on charges of ‘misappropriation of funds’. Jain’s stock options were canceled, the people said.
This comes even as the final report of the internal investigation being undertaken by independent consultant Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), still has to be tabled in front of the company’s board.
BharatPe had set up an investigation committee within the company in January, and
hired A&M to look at internal processes, after complaints around ‘financial irregularities’ were brought to the top management’s notice.
Even in his emergency plea with SIAC, Grover maintained that the internal investigation gave him no chance to present his case and was aimed at tarnishing his reputation as well as removing him as a shareholder of the company.
He also sought the suspension of BharatPe chief executive Suhail Sameer as a director of the company, as a part of the arbitration plea.
On February 4, ET reported that A&M had in its initial probe findings linked Jain, her brother Shwetank Jain and brother-in-law Deepak Jagdishram Gupta, to
financial irregularities at the company.
