Company:BharatPe

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Short description: Indian payment service provider

BharatPe
TypeFinTech
Founded20 March 2018; 5 years ago (2018-03-20)
Founder
  • Shashvat Nakrani, Ashneer Grover
Headquarters
New Delhi
,
India
Key people
  • Suhail Sameer
    (CEO)
Products
  • 12% Club
  • Digital Gold
RevenueIncrease ₹700 crore (US$98 million) (2021)[1]
Website{{{1}}}

BharatPe is an Indian fintech company that caters to small merchants and kirana store owners in India .[2] The company offers a range of fintech products including interoperable QR code for UPI payments, Bharat Swipe (POS machine) for card acceptance, and small business financing.

It facilitates small merchants to accept payments via Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for free, through BharatPe QR codes. It also offers merchant loans of up to ₹7 lakh (US$9,800) for a duration of 3 to 12 months.[citation needed] The other products include and a peer to peer lending product called 12% Club.[3] In 2020, the company launched a new product, Digital Gold, which allows the users to transact for 24-carat gold containing 99.5% purity.[4]

History

The firm was co-founded by Ashneer Grover and Sashvat Nakrani in 2018, with its headquarters in New Delhi, India.[citation needed]

In 2020, cricketers Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, K. L. Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Sanju Samson, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Shubman Gill were signed as BharatPe brand ambassadors.[5] Later in 2020, it hired Mr. Suhail Sameer as their group president.[6]

In June 2021, Reserve Bank of India issued an in-principle approval to Centrum Financial Services Limited to establish a small finance bank with BharatPe.[7][8] Till March 2021, it has expanded its network to 100 cities across India, including tier 2 and 3 cities, which include the cities of Guwahati, Vellore, Hosur, Nagpur, Raipur, Bilaspur,[disambiguation needed] Bhubaneswar, Pondicherry, Amritsar, Varanasi, and Agra.[9] In June 2021, it acquired Payback India from American Express and ICICI Investments Strategic Fund. It did not disclose the transaction value.[10] In August 2021, the company changed its leadership and elevated Suhail Sameer as the chief executive officer from group president, with Ashneer Grover taking over as the managing director.[11] On 1 March 2022, Ashneer Grover had resigned from the company.[12] However the mudslinging between Grover and the company continued as Bharat Pe management pointed out to the lavish lifestyle claims of the founder. The latest in the spotlight were the luxury car Porsche Grover bought while he pointed out the company CEO Sameer Suhail's BMW Z4.[13]

Competition

BharatPe got competitors like as not completely Indian companies because of ownership by companies that are not Indian while calling itself Nationalistic because of complete Indian ownership. The employees of the company distributed pamphlets with such information to compromise the reputation of competitors. The Mint reported to have copies of such pamphlets.[14]

The competitors responded with law suits and also approached the Reserve Bank of India to stop such activities by BharatPe[15] The pamphlet distribution was also confirmed by The Times of India. The same reported "BharatPe's actions has incensed rivals, especially Paytm and PhonePe, as they compete more directly than others like Amazon and Google Pay."[14]

The other controversy BharatPe was involved in was with another competitor PhonePe which is a consumer-focused payments firm but competes with BharatPe for merchant payments on UPI, when the two payment applications fought over the use of words 'Pe'. The matter is to be sought in the courts in July 2021.[16]

Controversies and Irregularities

In January 2022, there was a sudden announcement of Grover taking a voluntary leave from office until March amid his controversial behaviour in his interaction with a Kotak bank employee and also on the reality TV show Shark Tank India.[17] Subsequently the Bharat Pe board also called for an independent audit of the company's processes including the tenure of Grover and his wife Madhuri in the management. Following this management consultant and risk advisory firm Alvarez and Marsal indicated financial irregularities like payments of 53.25 crores to non existent entities incurring a loss of 10.97 crores.[18] Further, Grover's wife Madhuri Jain was sacked from her position as Head of Controls at Bharat Pe over allegations of financial irregularities. The company also cancelled the stock options alloted to her.[19] On 1 March 2022, Ashneer Grover resigned from his position of the Managing Director of the company. Meanwhile the company has accused Grover and his family of citing misappropriation of funds of the company by Grover and his wife, Madhuri Jain Grover.[20][21]

References

  1. ↑ "BharatPe revenue jumps over six times to Rs 70000 cr in FY21". https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/corporate/story/bharatpe-revenue-jumps-over-six-times-to-rs-700-cr-in-fy21-298970-2021-06-17. 
  2. ↑ "BharatPe all set to crack the merchant's code" (in en). https://businessindia.co/magazine/bharatpe-all-set-to-crack-the-merchants-code. 
  3. ↑ "BharatPe aims to disburse ₹1,000 crore in loans in next six months" (in en). https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/money-and-banking/bharatpe-aims-to-disburse-1000-crore-in-loans-in-next-six-months/article32805521.ece. 
  4. ↑ "BharatPe launches Digital Gold, to add credit and debit cards as payment options in near future" (in en). https://www.financialexpress.com/money/bharatpe-launches-digital-gold-to-add-credit-and-debit-cards-as-payment-options-in-near-future/2114983/. 
  5. ↑ "BharatPe Launches Brand Campaign with record 11 Cricket Stars as Brand Ambassadors" (in en). http://businessworld.in/article/BharatPe-Launches-Brand-Campaign-with-record-11-Cricket-Stars-as-Brand-Ambassadors/10-10-2020-330003. 
  6. ↑ "BharatPe Appoints Ex – McKinsey as Group President" (in en). http://bwpeople.businessworld.in/article/BharatPe-Appoints-Ex-McKinsey--as-Group-President-/13-08-2020-308196. 
  7. ↑ Mittal, Apoorva. "BharatPe puts in joint bid to acquire PMC Bank". The Economic Times. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/bharatpe-puts-in-joint-bid-to-acquire-pmc-bank-report/articleshow/80343036.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst. 
  8. ↑ "Centrum takeover of PMC Bank: What's in store for existing depositors" (in en). 2021-06-21. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-pmc-bank-scam-centrum-money-7366292/. 
  9. ↑ "BharatPe expands to 100 cities in India" (in en). 2021-03-10. https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/bharatpe-expands-to-an-additional-100-cities-in-india-11615363739171.html. 
  10. ↑ "BharatPe acquires Payback India" (in en). https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/bharatpe-acquires-payback-india/article34776942.ece. 
  11. ↑ "BharatPe - About Us" (in en). https://bharatpe.com/about. 
  12. ↑ "BharatPe Co-Founder Ashneer Grover Quits Firm, Days After Wife Was Sacked". NDTV.com. https://www.ndtv.com/business/ashneer-grover-quits-bharatpe-says-forced-to-bid-adieu-2796084. 
  13. ↑ "Ashneer Grover defends his "2nd hand" Porsche: Calls out new CEO for buying BMW Z4" (in en-US). 2022-03-14. https://www.cartoq.com/ashneer-grover-defends-his-2nd-hand-porsche-calls-out-bharatpe-ceo-suhail-sameer-for-buying-bmw-z4/. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Mishra, Digbijay (September 3, 2020). "BharatPe displays 'Indian' tag, dares Paytm, PhonePe" (in en). https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/bharatpe-displays-indian-tag-dares-paytm-phonepe/articleshow/77898318.cms. 
  15. ↑ Bhalla, Tarush (2020-09-01). "BharatPe's taunts on nationalism irk rivals" (in en). https://www.livemint.com/technology/tech-news/digital-payment-firms-lock-horns-with-bharatpe-11598980420489.html. 
  16. ↑ "PhonePe's battle with BharatPe over suffix set for full trial in July". The Economic Times. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/phonepes-battle-with-bharatpe-over-suffix-set-for-full-trial-in-july/articleshow/83242136.cms?from=mdr. 
  17. ↑ "The inside story of why Ashneer Grover had to go on leave from BharatPe" (in en). https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/companies/the-inside-story-of-why-ashneer-grover-had-to-go-on-leave-from-bharatpe-7966081.html. 
  18. ↑ "Why BharatPe needed to hire PwC to oust Ashneer Grover" (in en). https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/why-bharatpe-needed-to-hire-pwc-to-oust-ashneer-grover-8048921.html. 
  19. ↑ Livemint (2022-02-23). "Ashneer Grover's wife Madhuri Jain sacked by BharatPe, ESOPs cancelled" (in en). https://www.livemint.com/news/india/ashneer-grover-s-wife-madhuri-jain-sacked-by-bharatpe-esops-cancelled-11645604005989.html. 
  20. ↑ "BharatPe accuses Ashneer Grover, family of ‘fraud’; read the full text". The Economic Times. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/bharatpe-accuses-ashneer-grover-family-of-fraud-read-the-full-text/articleshow/89940200.cms. 
  21. ↑ "Read Ashneer Grover’s resignation letter sent to the BharatPe board". The Economic Times. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/read-ashneer-grovers-resignation-letter-sent-to-the-bharatpe-board/articleshow/89913066.cms. 




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