Amidst news of settlement between the company and Ashneer Grover, B2B payments firm BharatPe has been witnessing departure of its senior executives. Its chief revenue officer Nishit Sharma and head of debt Chandrima Dhar have resigned from the Delhi-based company, according to three sources aware of their resignation.
“Sharma and Dhar have resigned early this month and are currently serving notice period,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity.
The resignation has come at a time when BharatPe is trying to strengthen its leadership team. The company is reportedly hiring Nalin Negi as a chief financial officer (CFO). Negi was CFO of SBI Cards and Payment Services.
According to sources, several CXOs at BharatPe are looking for opportunities outside due to what they see as the uncertainty around the future of the Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital-backed firm. “These executives have little faith in Suhail Sameer’s ability to run the business,” said another source who also wished not to be named as talks are private.
Sameer has been serving as chief executive officer (CEO) of BharatPe since August 2021. He was hired by Grover who was ousted from the company along with his wife Madhuri Jain in March on the ground of fraud and other irregularities.
While a Morning Context report early this week said that the company will not claw back Grover’s shares, the company denied this vehemently and reiterated: there is no change in this decision and the company will pursue all steps to claw back Grover’s shares.
“The ongoing spat at BharatPe has been impacting the morale of the employees including the leadership team. More employees are likely to move from the company,” said the above quoted source.
Queries sent to Sharma, Dhar and BharatPe remained unanswered until the publication of the story.
BharatPe checked into the unicorn club in August last year [with $2.85 billion valuation] after raising $370 million led by Tiger Global. FY21 turned out to be the first year of meaningful revenues for the firm which jumped 20X and stood at Rs 119 crore in the fiscal year (FY21).
