Ashneer Grover, founder and ex-CEO of , has criticised the leadership of current CEO Suhail Sameer and Rajnish Kumar for BharatPe’s lack of growth and cash burn in the first quarter of 2022.
Grover stepped down as CEO in 2021, and stepped away from the company completely on March 1, 2022.
In a Twitter post, Grover said, “I just heard BharatPe closed its first quarter of ‘degrowth’ and ‘maximum cash burn’ under able (sic) leadership of Rajnish Kumar and Suhail Sameer.” By placing the word ‘sic’ in the tweet, he is mocking BharatPe’s decision to call the current leadership team “able”.
Grover continued, “markets are the ultimate test & truth.”
Grover famously fell out with the BharatPe Board and investors earlier this year after an investigation into his conduct at the company led to the dismissal of his wife Madhuri Jain Grover in February, and Grover’s own resignation as Managing Director at the start of March.
In an interview with Economic Times, Grover also cleared up an issue that has plagued BharatPe recently. Bhavik Koladiya has been described as a founder by some in the BharatPe team, while Grover himself described him as nothing more than a contract worker in his resignation email.
However, with rumours of a probe by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Grover clarified that Koladiya’s initial shares in the company were bought by himself, co-founder Sachin Nakrani, Sequoia and angel investor Beenext during their pre-Series A round.
Grover remains the largest individual shareholder in BharatPe, although the company has made claims that they will try to claw back his ownership in the coming months.
