BharatPe Initiates Action Against Former Founder To Claw Back Restricted Shares

BharatPe has initiated necessary action against a former founder to claw back his restricted shares following a governance review.

The fintech startup will take all steps to enforce its right under the law, according to a statement issued on Tuesday.

The BharatPe board had in January 2022 initiated a corporate governance review of the company. It had appointed consultancy Alvarez & Marsal and law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. to help with its governance review. PwC, a leading consulting entity, was brought on to determine wilful misconduct and gross negligence by a former founder.

"After a detailed review of the above report over the last two months, the board of BharatPe has recommended several decisive measures that are being implemented," the statement read.

These include a new code of conduct for senior management and employees, a new and comprehensive vendor procurement policy, blocking of vendors involved in malpractices, and regular internal audits.

"BharatPe has also terminated the services of several employees in departments who were directly involved with these blocked vendors," the statement read. "If required, the firm will be filing criminal cases against some of these employees for the misconduct and act of cheating committed by them against the company."

BharatPe said it has registered the strongest quarter in its history with four time growth in overall revenue.

"On a sequential-quarter basis, the growth has been 30%, despite the third wave of Covid-19. Comparing month-on-month, all our metrics have grown at the fastest pace, i.e. merchant total payments value, i.e., TPV (17%), consumer TPV (39%), loans facilitated in partnership with RBI-registered NBFCs (31%), and revenue (21%) in March 2022 over February 2022."

"Going forward, we are tracking well to break even on merchant business and further strengthen our consumer business," the statement read.