Dreams can only come true when you start dreaming. But, it is not everything that one needs to become successful. Similar is the entrepreneurial journey of Ashneer Grover. He is the founder of Bharat Pe, a-one-year-old start-up.
With the current scenario of the Indian ecosystem, one out of ten people aspires to become an entrepreneur. But, how many of them dare take a step forward? If you just go throughout the business magazine wishing you will become famous one day that is not happening. Is it? Ashneer Grover took a huge career risk because he wanted to chase his dreams.
Early Life
Ashneer belonged to a family with a rich academic background. His father is a Chartered Accountant and his mother is a teacher. So, he never faced any problem both socially and economically. Ashneer studied B. Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT Delhi. He also went to the University of INSA-Lyon, France for one year.
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He was one of the six students to be selected by IIT Delhi for this Exchange Program. After completing his undergraduate program, the common dream to work for an MNC landed him at IIM Ahmadabad. He graduated with an MBA degree in 2006.
Early Career
He got his first job at Kotak Investment Banking. Ashneer joined as the Vice President and worked there for seven years. In 2013, Ashneer joined American Express as the Director of Corporate Development. For many MBA graduates, this is their dream job. But, Ashneer wanted to join a start-up, work for them and see how the system processes itself.
He decided to leave Amex and join Grofers. During this time, he didn’t receive much support from his family as every parent wants a secure future for their child. The chances were uncertain. But, Madhuri, spouse of Ashneer supported him as Ashneer seemed to be confident about it. So, in 2015, Ashneer joined Grofers as a core team member.
Knowing the start-up ecosystem
To establish one of your own you should know the internal system. So, joining Grofers was very much helpful for Ashneer and it also gave him a lot of exposure. He created a healthy network of investors which is a very crucial part of establishing a start-up. He worked at Grofers for a couple of years.
Everything seemed to be going well and he decided to leave the company. Indeed, you should not settle unless you achieve your goal irrespective of how big it is. When he broke the news to his family, they didn’t take it well. But, he did what he had to.
Ashneer joined PC Jeweller Ltd in November 2017 as Head of New Business. He helped the company develop some new business and payment strategies. While working with the new payment options for a company, the idea of Bharat Pe triggered him. He knew the risks of leaving the current job and giving all his time to a new start-up, but he did it anyway.
Once he decided to quit the company and till now, the contribution of his spouse his huge. In 2019, Madhuri also joined Bharat Pe to support her husband and help him make it bigger.
Bharat Pe
Initially, when Ashneer just started working for the Bharat Pe project, he was unable to afford many employees. It was just after the seed funding round that responsibilities increased and he needed someone by his side. Madhuri decided to join the company and manage some of the important things like finance control and banking HR.
It was challenging at the beginning but they hit huge success in less than a year. In October 2018, Ashneer officially launched Bharat Pe with less than twenty employees. And, within a year 500 sales employees were working for him. He successfully established offices in thirteen different cities including Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, and Delhi.
The network of Bharat Pe has increased to 11 lakh merchants and witnesses more than 15 million monthly UPI transactions.
Success of Bharat Pe
The company has recently raised $15 million in Series B funding. Venture Capitalist firm, Ribbit Capital and London-based Steadview Capital led the funding round. After this round, the total valuation of the start-up summed to $225 million. The monthly transaction through Bharat Pe is worth $83 million. The new start-up is catching everyone’s attention throughout the world.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more