Ashneer Grover is an entrepreneur from India and one of the co-founders of BharatPe, a financial technology company.
In a recent update, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has initiated legal proceedings against Ashneer Grover, the former Managing Director and co-founder of BharatPe, a fintech company, as well as his wife, Madhuri Jain Grover. They are accused of engaging in an alleged fraudulent activity amounting to Rs 81 crore, which took place last year.
Here are top facts about recent developments and the entrepreneurship journey of Ashneer Grower:
Question: What recent case has the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police registered?
Answer: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has registered a case against BharatPe’s former Managing Director and co-founder, Ashneer Grover, and his wife, Madhuri Jain Grover. They are accused of an alleged fraud of Rs 81 crore committed last year. Some of their relatives are also named in the case.
Question: Who filed the complaint against Ashneer Grover and his family?
Answer: The complaint was filed by BharatPe, the company co-founded by Ashneer Grover.
Question: What are the allegations against Ashneer Grover and his family?
Answer: The complaint alleges that Ashneer Grover and his family misused company funds through forged documents. They are accused of misappropriating company funds by making payments to non-existent firms, vendors, and HR consultancy firms without any services being rendered, causing a wrongful loss of about Rs. 81 crores to the company.
Question: How has Ashneer Grover responded to the allegations?
Answer: Ashneer Grover has denied the charges, stating that he is “in the right”.
Question: Which legal actions did BharatPe take in response to the alleged fraud?
Answer: In December, BharatPe filed a civil suit and a criminal complaint with the Economic Offences Wing (EoW), which led to the FIR.
Question: What are the specific criminal charges in the FIR against Ashneer Grover and his family?
Answer: The FIR registered against Ashneer Grover and his family includes sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 408 (criminal breach of trust by clerk or servant), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc.), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), and 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Question: What was BharatPe’s response to the registration of the FIR?
Answer: BharatPe welcomed the registration of the FIR by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police. They stated that this is a step in the right direction as it exposes various suspicious transactions made by Grover’s family for personal pecuniary gains. The company also mentioned enduring a vicious campaign run by Grover against the company, the board, and its employees for the last 15 months.
Ashneer Grover: A Brief Introduction
Ashneer Grover is a prominent Indian businessman who is the co-founder and former managing director of BharatPe, one of the leading online money transaction platforms in India. He is also one of the judges in the first season of Shark Tank India, a reality show where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to investors. In this article, we will explore his life story, achievements, controversies and more.
Early Life and Education
Ashneer Grover was born on 14 June 1982 in Delhi, India. His father, Ashok Grover, was a chartered accountant who passed away in March 2023. His mother, Neeru Grover, is a teacher. Ashneer completed his schooling in Delhi and then pursued B.Tech in civil engineering at IIT Delhi. During his graduation days, he was one of the six students who were selected by IIT Delhi as an exchange student for the University of INSA Lyon Institut National Des Science Appliquees de Lyon, France. He moved to France in 2002 and received a scholarship of Rs. 5 lakh from the French Embassy. In 2004, he enrolled in an MBA in Finance program at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Career Journey
Ashneer Grover started his career as a vice president at Kotak Investment Banking in Mumbai in 2006. He worked there for seven years and handled various deals in sectors like retail, oil and gas, telecom, media, manufacturing and real estate. In 2013, he joined American Express as the director of corporate development and led the Series B investment in MobiKwik, a digital wallet company. In 2015, he switched to Grofers, an online grocery delivery platform, as the chief financial officer. He raised $170 million from investors like Softbank, Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital and Yuri Milner. He also helped build the business and operations of Grofers along with the founders.
In 2017, he left Grofers and joined PC Jeweller Ltd as the head of the new business. He led the digital transformation and strategy of the second-largest jewellery retailer in India and enabled partnerships with PayTM, PhonePe, Pine Labs, Magic Pin and QwikCilver. It was during this stint that he got the idea of BharatPe, a platform that enables offline merchants to accept digital payments using QR codes.
In 2018, Ashneer Grower co-founded BharatPe along with Shashvat Nakrani and Bhavik Koladiya. The platform leverages the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system to facilitate transactions between customers and merchants without any charges or hardware requirements. BharatPe also offers loans, insurance and other financial services to its merchant partners. Within three years of its launch, BharatPe became one of the fastest-growing fintech startups in India with over 7 million merchants across 100 cities and over $10 billion annualized transaction value.
In 2021, Ashneer Grover became one of the judges in Shark Tank India, the Indian version of the popular American show where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of investors. He joined other prominent investors like Ritesh Agarwal (founder of OYO), Radhika Aggarwal (co-founder of ShopClues), Sanjeev Bikhchandani (founder of Info Edge) and Bejul Somaia (partner at Lightspeed India).
Controversies
Ashneer Grover has been involved in several controversies during his entrepreneurial journey. Some of them are:
- In 2019, BharatPe distributed pamphlets against Paytm accusing it of charging merchants for UPI transactions. Paytm responded by calling it a cheap publicity stunt and threatened legal action.
- In 2020, BharatPe got into a legal battle with PhonePe over the use of ‘Pe’ suffix in their names. PhonePe claimed that BharatPe was infringing on its trademark and sought an injunction from the Delhi High Court. BharatPe argued that ‘Pe’ was a generic term meaning ‘on’ or ‘at’ in Hindi and could not be monopolized by anyone.
- In 2021, an abusive audio clip allegedly featuring Ashneer Grover went viral on social media. The clip had him hurling expletives at an employee who had resigned from BharatPe. Ashneer Grover later apologized for his behaviour and said that it was a private conversation that was leaked maliciously.
What is BharatPe: A fintech company
BharatPe is a fintech company that provides a single QR code for merchants to accept payments from any UPI app such as PhonePe, PayTM, Google Pay, BHIM and 150 others. The payments get settled directly into the merchant’s bank account without any charges or limits. BharatPe also offers loans, investments, insurance and other financial services to its merchant partners. BharatPe was co-founded by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani in 2018 with a vision to empower the small and medium businesses in India with digital solutions. Today, BharatPe has over 5 million merchants across 35 cities in India and has raised over $370 million from investors like Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners and Sequoia Capital.
