BharatPe appoints 3 top executives amid legal battle with Ashneer

NEW DELHI: IPO-bound fintech platform BharatPe on Tuesday announced three key appointments, along with hiring Ambuj Bhalla as its Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), as it fights a legal battle with former Co-founder Ashneer Grover in the Delhi High Court.

BharatPe also announced the appointment of Rahul Bhatia as Head of Internal Audit and Ravinder Oberoi as Head of Compliance.

"As we focus on getting IPO ready, it becomes essential for us to ensure that data privacy, cyber security, corporate governance and compliance are given the highest priority," said Shashvat Nakrani, Co-Founder, BharatPe.

"I look forward to collaborating with all the three leaders as we build BharatPe as a brand trusted by millions across the country," he added.

Bhalla has close to two decades of experience with brands like IndiGo Airlines, Reserve Bank Information Technology (ReBIT) and Bharti Airtel, with a strong focus on information security, as well as data privacy and protection.

Bhatia has about 17 years of experience in the domain of governance, risk and compliance (GRC) in the financial services sector while Oberoi is an industry veteran with close to 23 years of experience in financial services, banking as well as insurance companies.

Founded in 2018, BharatPe is currently serving 1 crore merchants across more than 400 cities. The company is a leader in UPI offline transactions, processing over 18 crore UPI transactions per month (with an annualized transaction processed value of over $24 billion in payments).

The company has facilitated the disbursement of loans close to Rs 8,500 crore to over 450,000 merchants.

The fintech platform also received in-principle authorisation from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as an online Payment Aggregator (PA).

Currently, the company is involved in a legal battle with its former Co-founder and managing director Grover, after suing him and his family for allegedly siphoning off company funds worth Rs 88.6 crore.

The Delhi High Court this month asked Grover's counsel to advise his client (Grover) to maintain decorum following his termination from the fintech company while hearing a plea filed by the company seeking orders to restrain Grover and his kin from making defamatory statements against the company, and other reliefs.