Indian payments startup BharatPe on Tuesday said its Chief Executive Officer Suhail Sameer has stepped down, the latest in a slew of high-profile exits at the Sequoia-backed company.
Founded in 2018, BharatPe, which competes with apps such as SoftBank’s Paytm and Google Pay in India’s booming online payments market, was regarded as one of India’s most successful startups.
With Ashneer Grover at the helm, BharatPe’s valuation touched nearly $3 billion in three years as it raised successful fundraising rounds from investors, including Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management, Ribbit Capital, Coatue Management and Beenext.
Things, however, changed dramatically in March, when Grover was removed from all titles and positions following multiple complaints and a third-party audit that alleged serious governance lapses under him. The audit accused Grover, his family, and relatives of creating fake vendors to siphon away funds and abusing expense accounts “in order to enrich themselves and fund their lavish lifestyles”.
Since then, IPO-hopeful BharatPe has witnessed many high-profile exits. Last month, three senior executives — chief technology officer Vijay Aggarwal, PostPe head Nehul Malhotra, and chief product officer for lending and consumer products Rajat Jain — resigned.
In August, BharatPe co-founder Bhavik Koladiya stepped down from the fintech’s day-to-day management operations and ended his consulting contract.
Recently, Koladiya posted on LinkedIn that he has joined SaaS startup OTPless as CEO.
In June, Nishit Sharma, the company’s chief revenue officer, and Satyam Nathani, one of BharatPe’s founding members, also resigned.
The company said it has named its CFO Nalin Negi as interim CEO. Negi joined the company in August from SBI Cards.
Mint had earlier reported that the board was scouting for a CEO and was keen to replace Sameer. The company declined to comment on this.
The company is backed by the likes of Tiger Global, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital, Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Steadview Capital, Beenext and Amplo.
MoneyControl reported that Sameer is setting up a venture capital fund to invest in startups.