Ashneer Grover

In a tweet, Grover said that "not allowing loading of pre-paid instruments through credit is aimed at protecting bank's lazy credit card business from Fintech's potent BNPL (buy now pay later) business". "It's a flex move by banks -- rent seeking. But market is market and regulation will eventually come around to what market needs," he added.

Earlier, BharatPe's chief revenue officer Nishit Sharma and head of institutional debt partnerships, Chandrima Dhar, had quit citing personal reasons. "This is to inform that Satyam Nathani has decided to move on from BharatPe to pursue his entrepreneurial ambitions. We will back him to build the next big tech disruptions," the company said in a statement.

In the first phase, the company is going live with peer-to-peer (P2P) investments and bank-deposit products with its partners on the platform. The P2P investment product is being powered through RBI regulated non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) LenDenClub and Liquiloans.

Ashneer Grover, who along with his wife Madhuri Jain Grover has been stripped of all company titles over alleged "extensive misappropriation of company funds" and using "company expense accounts" to "enrich themselves and fund their lavish lifestyles", said he will not go back to investors again.

The company had $300 million in revenue at the end of FY23, and exited March with around $100 million in sales. "We have no immediate plans to raise capital. We exited March at around $16 billion in annual total payment value (TPV) and aim to have payments TPV of $30 billion by March 2023," the company said.

In a letter written to BharatPe Board, Ashneer said that Sameer should be "immediately served a show-cause notice for his despicable public behaviour and immediately put on leave of absence to manage the damage to the Brand of the company". In a LinkedIn post on Thursday, Sameer replied to a comment posted by Ashima Grover, who is Senior Manager at MetLife, saying "Your brother stole all the money. Very little left to pay the salaries."

"On a sequential-quarter basis, the growth has been 30 per cent, despite the third wave of Covid-19," a BharatPe spokesperson told IANS. "Comparing month-on-month, all our metrics have grown at the fastest pace -- merchant total payments value (TPV) (17 per cent), consumer TPV (39 per cent), loans facilitated (31 per cent), and revenue (21 per cent) in March over February," the spokesperson informed.

Ashneer, also a popular judge on the reality show Shark Tank India, has accused BharatPe CEO Sameer of siding with the investors to remove him from the company. After reports surfaced that government regulators may expand their probe into BharatPe's financial books after the Ashneer-Madhuri Grover saga, the fintech platform said last month it will fully comply with the law of the land.

Reports surfaced last week, claiming that Ashneer "purchased a Porsche" when he was at BharatPe and "told multiple people at the company that he spent millions on a dining table"."Is it a space rocket? Is it a time machine? No it's a Rs 10 cr dining table!! I don't hold the Guinness World Record for the most expensive table ever. Nor do I intend to. Press - don't fall for BharatPe Board (undisclosed sources) lies - you'll lose your credibility like them," Ashneer tweeted.

Amid the hullabaloo over Ashneer and Madhuri Jain Grover and their tussle with BharatPe, the admin head at the fintech firm who was Madhuri Jain's close relative and allegedly involved in the misappropriation of funds, was also sacked.