“The Board of BharatPe is committed to the highest standards of corporate governance at the company and is doing an independent audit of the company’s internal processes and systems,” the company said in a statement.
“BharatPe, through its legal firm, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas has appointed Alvarez and Marsal, a leading management consultant and risk advisory firm to advise the Board on its recommendations,” it added.
The development comes just days after BharatPe founder,
Ashneer Grover went on ‘voluntary leave’ of absence until the end of March 2022. His leave from the fintech firm came on the back of an audio clip of his expletive-laced tirade surfaced on microblogging site Twitter.
Grover said he’ll be back “on or before April 1” in a
public statement he issued on January 19.
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In a fresh set of events this week, Grocer’s wife’s Madhuri Jain Grover, Head of Controls at BharatPe, also went on leave, amidst the company’s board starting an independent investigation. Jain has been with BharatPe since its inception.
A BharatPe spokesperson declined to comment on ET’s queries on the matter.
BharatPe, which allows shop owners to make digital payments through QR codes, has come under intense media scrutiny after an expletive-laced conversation allegedly between cofounder Ashneer Grover and a Kotak Mahindra Bank leaked earlier this month on microblogging site Twitter.
Also Read: The new rage in startup town –How does the startup world look at the latest controversy involving the BharatPe cofounder Ashneer Grover, and what do the aggressive entrepreneur and the silent board reveal about the ecosystem?
Grover had also sent legal notices to Kotak Mahindra Bank seeking damages for missing out on the Nykaa IPO in October, it later emerged. In reply to ET’s queries, earlier this month, Kotak had stated that it will pursue legal action for “inappropriate language” used by Grover, seemingly confirming the authenticity of the leaked audio clip.
Grover has taken leave from BharatPe until the end of March as a result of the furore generated by his dispute with Kotak.
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The BharatPe founder is said to be aggressive and abrasive with employees and other stakeholders, ET reported January 16.
As questions swirled around Grover’s language and behaviour,
an email exchange surfaced between him and the fintech firm’s investor Sequoia Capital India, further intensifying the scrutiny on the entrepreneur, ET reported on January 19.
ET reported on January 17 that Grover has had a spat with Harshjit Sethi, a managing director at Sequoia Capital India, which holds more than 19% of the company.
ETtech“Messages and threats from you (Grover) over the last few days and months have been hurtful and disappointing… Specifically we have heard your message of not wanting us on the cap table […] We need to have a decisive conversation about how the relationship between Sequoia and BharatPe changes going forward,” Sethi wrote in a mail to Grover in August 2020.
The disagreements between Sethi and Grover began after BharatPe’s Series B funding was delayed due to Sequoia not committing to the round. People familiar with the incident said that Sequoia had also raised concerns about Grover wanting to partially sell shares in a secondary transaction. This resulted in creating friction between Sequoia and Grover, which eventually led to the mail exchange.
