MUMBAI: Fintech firm BharatPe and its co-founder Ashneer Grover have arrived at a settlement, ending an over two-year dispute that reached the courtroom and triggered a series of public spats between the two parties.
As part of the settlement, Grover will not be associated with BharatPe in any capacity and will not hold any shares of the company. Both the parties have also decided to not pursue any of the cases filed, they said in separate statements on Monday.The startup had been embroiled in a legal tiff with Grover over alleged misappropriation of the company’s funds by him and family members and over the years they had been engaged in six legal cases.
The settlement comes days of arrest of Deepak Gupta, Grover’s brother-in-law and former procurement head at BharatPe, in the case of alleged misappropriation of the funds. Coincidentally, Gupta got bail on Monday, sources said. Grover also wrote a letter to the Special Commissioner of Delhi Police on Monday informing about the settlement.
“We have resolved all our disputes comprehensively under the settlement agreement dated Sept 30, 2024,” the outspoken startup founder said in the letter, a copy of which has been reviewed by TOI. Gupta’s arrest on Sept 19 was the second in the case by the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police after that of Amit Bansal who had been communicating with Gupta and Grover’s wife Madhuri for creating fake vendors and sending dummy invoices.
Some of Grover’s shares will be transferred to a trust affiliated with BharatPe (Resilient Growth Trust) for the benefit of the company, while his remaining shares will be managed by Grover’s family trust. In March 2023, Grover held about 8.4% in the company and other co-founders Bhavik Koladiya and Shashvat Nakrani had 2.3% and 4.8%, respectively, according to data sourced from market research firm Tracxn. Grover’s family trust will be for his children and it will be managed by a mutually agreed individual, sources said. MZM Legal and Trilegal are the legal representatives of BharatPe.
