In a communication with employees, BharatPe CEO Suhail Sameer said there were “serious allegations” of governance lapses that required a careful audit of governance practices by external experts.

He asked them to maintain trust in leadership amid co-founder Ashneer Grover’s spat with the company’s board, and said the auditor’s interim report should be released in the coming weeks. Samir did not elaborate on the allegations.

Grover, who was sent on a three-month holiday after being accused of abusive language and fraudulent conduct towards Kotak Mahindra Bank employees, denies all charges.

In a letter to employees, the CEO of BharatPe said the governance review is being carried out by well-known and well-known external firms (SAM, Alvarez and Marsal (A&M) and PricewaterhouseCoopers).

“Based on some internal complaints, we have decided to conduct a full audit of our governance processes,” he said. “While many of the findings of the review are fairly standard for a fast-growing company of our size, there are some more serious allegations that the review is still substantiating.”

Nothing is uncorrectable in the future, he said, which he said has no impact on the medium- and long-term health of the business.

“We expect the review partner (advisor) to share an interim report with the board within a few weeks,” he said. “In the meantime, I just ask all of you to maintain your trust in the BharatPe board, which is made up of some of the best investors in the world and veterans of the Indian banking industry. Whatever the board will decide, there will be no Questions are in the best interests of our employees, businesses and consumers.”

BharatPe was known for its QR code aggregator apps, services and surprise banking licenses until an audio clip surfaced on social media alleging that the company’s co-founder and managing director Grover abused and threatened an employee of Kotak Mahindra Bank Missed a share allocation in the IPO of FSN E-Commerce Ventures, which operates online fashion and wellness company Nykaa.

Later, Grover reportedly said he was “twisted” by the company’s investors, who put him on leave and lost confidence in CEO Samir Sohail, who should be removed.

However, the fintech firm’s other founder, Shashvat Nakrani, backed the CEO, saying Suhail continued to enjoy his confidence.

“BharatPe as a team faced a different challenge this time around,” Sameer Suhail wrote to staff. “We’ve been getting media attention and attention.” He said that while some reports were partially true, most were unsubstantiated rumors.

However, the business remains on an incredible growth trajectory. “Very little drop in TPV, continued expansion of postpe, outstanding loan collection performance, huge growth in PAYBACK, and as with every COVID wave in BharatPe history, some fab products are (already) ready to launch. We are in December An annualized TPV run rate of $16 billion was reached and has recovered to that run rate in February, although many markets are still impacted by COVID,” he wrote.

BharatPe “has a lot of cash in the bank to continue construction”. It has $500 million in the bank and all existing investors are backing it. “While the media may say it sees fit, we still get 2-3 new requests for inbound conversations a week from funds that want to invest in us,” he said, adding that the firm does not need to be in the Raising funds for the foreseeable future.

The CEO said employees are the backbone of BharatPe and they “will eventually take us to an IPO in the next 2-3 years”. “I promise (not only on my behalf, but on behalf of the broader leadership) that we will emerge stronger from all of this. My only request is to remain calm, to all of us, to the board, and most importantly to you Confidence,” he said.

BharatPe has built an amazing business and a few months of turmoil won’t stop it. He said that while postpe is the fastest Book Now Pay Later (BNPL) product with a TPV of 5 billion, loyalty platform PAYBACK is making a hype (January was the highest point redemption month ever and therefore highest revenue ever ). “All of this together means that January 2022 is our best month to date in terms of revenue and margins,” he said.

“In January, the RBI also approved our merger with Unity (the small finance bank we partnered with Centrum) to merge PMC Bank, both Centrum and our team are working hard to build India’s first true digital bank.” Rover told the media earlier this month that current CEO Suhail Sameer does not have his backing and that he is “a puppet for investors.”

He has reportedly said he will only leave the company if investors buy a 9.5 percent stake for 40 billion rupees, which BharatPe values ​​at $6 billion. Nakrani confirmed that he had not given any consent or demand to remove Suhail Sameer from the board. This complicates Grover’s efforts to remove Samir, as both founders need to agree to remove the CEO.

BharatPe serves over 7.5 million merchants in 150 cities. Its investors include Tiger Global, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital, Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital, etc.

Complete News Source: Financial Express