This article is dedicated to Ashneer Grover, the Founder & Managing Director of Bharat Pe. At present, he is one of the sharks in the business reality show, Shark Tank India, along with six other judges are Vineeta Singh, Peyush Bansal, Namita Thapar, Anupam Mittal, Ghazal Alagh, and Aman Gupta.
Ashneer Grover Early Life
Born in Delhi, India on 14 June 1982, Ashneer Grover spent his childhood in an educated household. His father is a Chartered Accountant and his mother is a teacher. He finds great interest in reading books.
Ashneer Grover Childhood and Student Life
Ashneer completed his graduation in Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and did his Master’s in Business Administration from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Apart from this he was selected as an exchange student for INSA Lyon, France at the time of his graduation for the year 2002-2003. Owing to his excellency in academic performance, Anshneer Grover received a € 6000 scholarship from the French Embassy.
Ashneer Grover Career
He started his career by working in several companies like Kotak Investment Bank, PC Jeweller Ltd, Grofers, and American Express. He ten started Bharat Pe in the year 2018. Till date the app has about 1 Crore+ download on Play Store. The breakdown of his jobs is as follows:
● Kotak Investment Banking, as Vice President for a tenure of 7 years, from 2006-2013.
● American Express, as a Director- Corporate Development for a tenure of 2 years, from 2013-2015.
● Grofers, as a Chief Financial Officer, for a tenure of three years from 2015-2017.
● PC Jewellers Ltd., as a Head of New Business, for a tenure of 1 year from 2017-2018.
Finally, working as a CEO and Co-founder of Bharat Pe for 3 years, from 2018 – August, 2021. Later he became the Full-time Managing Director and Co-founder of Bharat Pe from August, 2021.
Ashneer Grover Bharat Pe
BharatPe is a financial technology company that supports and simplifies the needs of small merchants and kirana store owners in India. It’s headquarter is in Delhi, and currently, it is one of the leading biotech companies in the country. Bharat Pe offers a range of financial technology products. It includes-
● Interoperable QR code for UPI payments,
● Bharat Swipe (POS machine) for card acceptance, and
● Small Business Financing.
How does it work?
● It fosters small merchants to receive revenues via UPI (Unified Payments Interface) for free, through BharatPe QR codes.
● It offers merchant loans for up to Rs. 7 lakhs for a duration of 3 to 12 months.
● A peer-to-peer lending product called 12% Club.
● The Digital Gold product, that allows the users to transact for 24-carat gold containing 99.5% purity.
It is the largest offline merchant network in India by making mobile payments acceptance-free and universal.
Currently, the 39-year old entrepreneur, Ashneer Grover net worth stands at $95 million. Apart from BharatPe, Ashneer Grover invested in more than 55 start-ups. Some of them are The Whole Truth, IndiaGold, Front Row, and OTO Capital.
Ashneer Grover Married Life
Ashneer Grover tied the knot with entrepreneur Madhuri Jain Grover. The couple has two children from the marriage- Avy Grover and Mannat Grover. Madhuri at present is a partner in BharatPe. Prior to this, she worked for brands like Alok Industries and Satya Paul.
She also has her own furnishing business under the name, Mauve, and Brown.
Ashneer Grover Achievements
Ashneer Grover has been adorned with two awards-
● The Entrepreneur of the Year Award, 2021, and
● The Young Achievers Award, 2021
All Shark Tank India Episodes
Ashneer Grover Controversies
He had been in the limelight for his achievements and investments all these years. But, controversies also knocked his path. An audio clip with a time duration of 4 minutes 29 seconds went viral on social media. It was captioned with a caption,
“How rich founders treat poor bank employees?”
He was accused of abusing a Kotak Mahindra bank employee. The reason was for not getting a shared allotment in Nykaa’s IPO.
Shark Tank India Judge and BharatPe founder Ashneer Grover denied the allegations in his own unique style as we can see him while delivering his comments to the pitchers in Shark Tank India.
From working as a Vice President to becoming a Managing Director, Anshneer Grover received immense support from his parents financially and socially. It is also said that he along with his wife and children had pasted Bharat Pe stickers outside merchant outlets. But within a month he established a network of almost 11 lakh merchants and facilitated over 15 million monthly UPI transactions. From nothing to becoming a budding entrepreneur, Ashneer’s story is an inspiration to all. His business almost went down to 60% during the pandemic phase. But with his calm attitude and silent yet thoughtful approach he is where he stands today as one of the important assets in India’s business world.
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