In Ashneer Grover's Swipe At BharatPe, Fill-In-The Blanks On Performance

Ashneer Grover has fired a fresh shot at BharatPe after a senior executive on LinkedIn posted charts that claimed the company has seen its fortune rise in March. Mr Grover, who still mentions he is the Managing Director of the payments firm on his Twitter profile, was last month stripped of all titles and positions after a third-party audit alleged serious governance lapses under him.

Mr Grover, however, continues to engage in skirmishes now and then with BharatPe Chief Executive Suhail Sameer and the company on social media.

In his latest swipe, Mr Grover commented on the charts posed by BharatPe Chief Product Officer Ankur Jain detailing how the company saw its best ever performance in March.

"The last few months at BharatPe were tumultuous. However, everyone in the company rallied around and executed brilliantly. March 2022 was the best month in BharatPe's journey. It was a joint effort from the team to make this happen. The numbers speak for themselves," Mr Jain wrote on the professional networking website.

Mr Grover replied, "Sir, numbers are much better expressed quantitatively. Could you help me understand them better?"

He posted data that compared his performance with Mr Sameer, the CEO. He also left the fields under Mr Sameer blank, asking the BharatPe executive who posted the charts to fill in the blanks.

In what was seen as BharatPe's attempt to put behind the controversy around Mr Grover, the payments firm said it is on track to break even and list on stock exchanges in the next 18-24 months.

The board will decide what to do with the money allegedly defrauded by Mr Grover, but the focus is for employees and teams to remain stable, Mr Samer told news agency PTI.

BharatPe, which allows shop owners to make digital payments, is now in 225 cities - more than two-fold growth from last fiscal - and has over 8 million merchants on board, up from 5 million in fiscal 2022.

Mr Grover also had to go on leave in January following allegations of using abusive language against Kotak Mahindra Bank staff and of fraudulent practices. He had accused Mr Sameer of siding with investors to remove him from office.