BharatPe MD Ashneer Grover wants ₹4000 cr to exit company he co-founded

Ashneer Grover, MD, and Co-founder of BharatPe has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. His memes have inundated the Internet too. Reason behind the same is that last month, Ashneer Grover landed in controversy after an audiotape of him allegedly threatening and abusing a Kotak Mahindra Bank employee was released. However, Grover claimed that the audiotape is fake and that some scammer is trying to extort money. But later, he eventually took down the tweet. Ashneer is currently being sued by Kotak Mahindra Bank for using "inappropriate words" towards one of their employees. Grover also appeared in Shark Tank India, the reality show of Sony TV which gives a chance to startup entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas and get investments.

Grover's position in his own company has come under question. Following this, in a recent interview, Grover said he will only quit BharatPe if an investor buys out his 9.5 percent stake at a $6 billion company valuation. He was speaking to Money Control. “What have I done to resign? This is like execution before trial. I am the MD (managing director). I run the company. If the board thinks I don’t need to be the MD and someone else should run the company, please put my ₹4,000 crore on the table and take the key away from me,” Grover was quoted as saying. The interview further mentioned that he wanted investors to buy him out at a fair market value or else he will keep running the company. When BharatPe raised $370 million from Tiger Global, Coatue, and other investors last year, BharatPe was valued at $3 billion.

Ashneer Grover took a voluntary leave till the end of March after hearing about the alleged audio. Even Madhuri Grover, Grover's wife, reportedly took a leave of absence last week. Though, as mentioned above, BharatPe co-founder was last seen as one of the sharks on the reality show of Sony TV's Shark Tank India. Besides him, Shaadi.com, Makaan.com, and People Group founder Anupam Mittal, Sugar Cosmetics co-founder and CEO Vineeta Singh, boAt co-founder and CMO Aman Gupta, Lenskart co-founder and CEO Peyush Bansal, Emcure Pharmaceuticals executive director Namita Thapar, and MamaEarth co-founder Ghazal Alagh were featured in the show.