Ashneer Grover – The former MD of BharatPe who took a voluntary leave from the company.

Ashneer Grover is one of the most famous businessmen in the Indian entrepreneurial world. He became famous after taking the position of Managing Director in BharatPe. Grover has been the recipient of several awards and accolades for his contribution to BharatPe and also as a visionary and leader. In 2021, Ashneer Grover was featured in Fortune India’s list of 40 Under 40 India’s brightest young business minds. From 2020, Ashneer Grover’s name has been making headlines as he got involved in some controversies. He was also sent on leave for using inappropriate language against the staff of Kotak Mahindra Bank. These are a few reasons behind his resignation from BharatPe.

Early Life

Grover was born in Delhi in 1982 and was raised in the same city. After completing his schooling, he joined IIT Delhi to study Civil Engineering. While he was studying at IIT, he was one of the six students who got selected for an exchange program for a university in France. After he went to France he also received a scholarship of Rs 5 lakh from the French embassy. After graduating from IIT Delhi, he got enrolled in IIM Ahmedabad in the Finance Program for MBA. During the placement season, Grover secured a job at Kotak Investment Banking and started his career.

Career

When Grover got his first offer, he directly joined the company as its Vice President. After joining Kotak Investment Banking, he worked there for almost 7 years and left the company in 2013. He then joined American Express, a well-known MNC, and worked there for a couple of years. In 2015, he left American Express to join Grofers as the company’s Chief Financial Officer. In these several years, Ashneer tried to expand his network and made connections with several investors as well. After working with multiple companies, he wanted to do something different and thus joined PC Jewellers as Business Head. His main target in the company was to develop an improvement with the payment option.

Since he was developing new payment options for the company, he got the idea for a new start-up revolving around the same. So, in 208, Ashneer Grover along with Shasvat Nakrani and Bhavik Koladiya launched BharatPe. Today, it is one of the most widely used digital payment options in the country. It is India’s first UPI interoperable QR code. Launching a startup was quite challenging for Grover in the early days. Initially, he wasn’t able to afford too many employees but he needed someone to manage the operations with him. So, eventually his wife, Madhuri became a part of the company. Grover is also famous as one of the sharks in Shark Tank India, a reality show for startup businesses.

Resignation from BharatPe

There are several controversies and criticism that have surfaced in the last few years against Grover. For example, a lawsuit was filed against Grover and his company, BharatPe by Paytm and a few other companies for distributing pamphlets that suggested that they were not fully India-based companies. The companies that filed the lawsuit also requested the Reserve Bank of India to take appropriate actions against BharatPe. Another battle also took place between BharatPe and PhonePe regarding the usage of the same suffix.

But one controversy that escalated fast and didn’t leave Grover any other option but to retire was an abusive audio clip. In January 2022, the audio of Grover having a conversation with Kotak Mahindra Bank went viral where abusive languages were used. The bank also alleged that both Grover and his wife threatened the staff of the bank. Later, Grover tweeted that it was a fake audio clip. In March 2022, Grover stepped down as the Managing Director of the company and quit from BharatPe.

Personal Life

Ashneer Grover is married to Madhuri Grover who is also an entrepreneur. Before she started working for BharatPe, she was an interior designer and worked with many high-profile people. The couple has two children, a son (Avy Grover) and a daughter (Mannat Grover).