'Ab Nani yaad aayegi': Ashneer Grover to BharatPe chairman Rajnish Kumar

Ousted BharatPe cofounder Ashneer Grover took a jibe at the company's chief executive officer Suhail Sameer and chairman Rajnish Kumar on microblogging platform Twitter.

"So I just heard @bharatpeindia closed it's first quarter of 'degrowth' and 'maximum cash burn' under able (sic) leadership of Rajnish Kumar and Suhail Sameer. 'Chaabi chheenna and hatti chalana do alag alag skills hai !' Ab Nani yaad aayegi - markets are the ultimate test & truth," Grover tweeted.

Refuting Grover's claims, BharatPe said it registered the strongest quarter in its history. "We have registered 4x growth in our overall revenue over the same period last year. 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 (31%), and revenue (21%) in March 2022 over Feb 2022," BharatPe told Fortune India in a statement.

This comes weeks after Grover lashed out at BharatPe's Suhail Sameer, stating that if the CEO can purchase a BMW Z4 convertible then the founder too can afford a second hand Porsche.

"I am proud @SuhailSameer14 that within 1 year of joining BharatPe you could buy BMW Z4 Convertible sports car. I've made my employees' dreams come true. Ironic that you believe you as employee can afford your dream and I as Founder can't even afford a 2nd hand Porsche. Touché !!," Grover had said.

Rebutting the reports that alleged he bought a Porsche and spent ₹1 crore on a dining table, Grover said he doesn't hold the Guinness World Record for the most expensive dining table ever. "Is it a space rocket? Is it a time machine? No it's a ₹10 cr dining table !! Haha ! I don't hold the Guinness World Record for 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," he said.

Last month, the board of the BharatPe sacked Grover from all positions — including his title as founder of the fintech firm. The board accused Grover and his family of "extensive misappropriation" of company funds. "The Grover family and their relatives engaged in extensive misappropriation of company funds, including, but not limited to, creating fake vendors through which they siphoned money away from the company’s expense account," it had said in a statement.

Prior to his sacking, Grover, who still remains the single largest individual shareholder of the company, had tendered his resignation to the board. The resignation came after BharatPe terminated the services of Madhuri Jain Grover, Ashneer's wife and the head of controls at the fintech unicorn, on grounds of misappropriation of funds.