BharatPe: How is it Making QR Code and UPI Payments Accessible?

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Suffering from code-based payments? At times servers go down and you are unable to make your payment, right? Merchants, retailers, customers, and myriad other businesses and businessmen often suffer from such issues. Embracing digital payment methods is not always smooth though it appears to be most often.

Anyways, now with BharatPe, you can approach your digital payment requirements easily and conveniently without any hassles. Read the BharatPe success story brought out by StartupTalky, which includes the Founders and Team, History, Business Model, Revenue Model, Funding and Investors, Growth, Competitors, Tagline, Slogan and Logo, and more!

Company Highlights

About BharatPe
BharatPe - Founders and Team
BharatPe - How Does It Work?
BharatPe - Name, Tagline and Logo
BharatPe - Business Model
BharatPe - Revenue Model
BharatPe - Funding And Investors
BharatPe - Shareholding
BharatPe - Growth and Revenue
BharatPe - Financials
BharatPe - Products and Features Launch
BharatPe - Challenges and Controversies
BharatPe - Partnerships
BharatPe - Marketing Campaign
BharatPe - Competitors
BharatPe - Future Goals

About BharatPe

BharatPe is a QR code-based payment app for offline businessmen and retailers. The company has its headquarters in New Delhi, but there are around five more offices of BharatPe across the country. The app, which allows its users to accept UPI payments for free through the BharatPe QR code, is hugely beneficial for small merchants and Kirana stores and their owners. Along with offering easy and interoperable QR codes for effortless UPI payments, BharatPe also extends Bharat Swipe (POS machine) for card acceptance and small business financing. Furthermore, the company also offers merchant loans of up to Rs 7 lakhs that can be availed for a duration of 3 to 12 months.

BharatPe also owns a peer-to-peer lending platform called 12% Club. BharatPe also launched the Digital Gold product in 2020. This will allow the users to transact for 24-carat gold with 99.5% purity.

The BharatPe app powered by efficient QR code payments helps its users to sign in immediately, and instantly start receiving the funds in their bank account. BharatPe started with a mission to make payments free for all its users. Its intention is to help all.

BharatPe - Founders and Team

BharatPe's founders were Ashneer Grover, Bhavik Koladiya, and Shashvat Nakrani. However, with Ashneer's resignation dated February 28, 2022, BharatPe listed Bhavik and Shashvat as its co-founders. Bhavik Koladiya resigned, months after Ashneer Grover was terminated, as per reports dated August 2, 2022.

BharatPe was initially founded by Shashvat Nakrani and Bhavik Koladiya, each of whom owned 50% of the company shares. It was Koladiya, who served as the face of the company and negotiated with the investors for funding. Then, Ashneer Grover joined in June 2018, 3 months later. He was the third founder of BharatPe. However, with Grover joining the company, BharatPe's shareholding structure changed. It then granted Grover a 32% stake, Nakrani a 25.5% stake, and Koladiya held the largest stake (42.5%).

However, Koladiya's name went missing from the founder's list of BharatPe in December 2018, before Sequoia came on board. This is because the investors refrained from investing in a company whose co-founder was convicted in a US court in 2015. Koladiya was involved previously in a credit card fraud. Since then, Ashneer Grover was made the face of the company.

Ashneer Grover

Ashneer Grover served as the MD and the co-founder of BharatPe until he resigned from the company and relinquished his position on February 28, 2022. Ashneer is from South Delhi, India, and is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He was once the new head of new business at PCJ. Furthermore, he headed Corp Dev for Amex India. He was also previously appointed as the CFO of Grofers.

Ashneer Grover had been in the news after his voice matched with a caller who reportedly hurled abusive language and was thoroughly threatening and ill-tempered while talking with a Kotak Wealth Management employee over the failure to secure financing for Nykaa’s initial share sale. Grover had then been asked by the company, BharatPe's board, to take a voluntary absence for two months on January 19, 2022. However, this was not due to his telephone controversy but due to a bigger financial fraud to which he was allegedly connected. Grover was then put on a mandatory leave of absence. This did not only concern Grover but also his wife Madhuri and five others. His wife, Madhuri Jain Grover was also put on leave amidst the government probe. Madhuri Jain Grover, the wife of Ashneer Grover, who had headed the Controls at BharatPe, was finally terminated from her services due to financial irregularities, as per reports dated February 23, 2022. This termination meant that she had to part with her stakes in the company due to "misappropriation of finances".

Madhuri Jain on one occasion after her termination, accused the company co-founder Bhavik Koladiya and CEO Suhail Sameer of merry-making inside the office premises, saying that both of them, along with Shashvat Nakrani, can indulge in their "drunken orgies" without her in the office, while referring herself as a "righteous lady." Furthermore, Madhuri Jain Grover also took a jab at the BharatPe Board of Directors, where she termed them "male chauvinists" along with accusing them of "objectifying women".

The Founder and MD Ashneer Grover was on the radar of the news and media for a long time. This was not only for the lowering standards and the toxic culture that Bharatpe exhibits, neither it related to the rude behavior of Ashneer on the Shark Tank show or on the call with a Kotak employee, which Ashneer tried to convince as fake, the financial misconduct seemed a really big thing, which was under scrutiny on behalf of the Board. The figure for the misconduct was reported to be in double-digit crores, as per the reports and the return of Grover to his position or back to the office seemed like a remote possibility. Yes, the reports that BharatPe will likely fire Grover, were ripe since the end of January 2022, according to close sources. BharatPe had appointed Alvarez & Marsal, a risk advisory firm to conduct an independent audit of the startup’s internal processes and systems on January 31, 2022. Reports also confirmed that Ashneer Grover approached legal aid in the form of Karanjawala & Co., a law firm from Delhi NCR, to secure his position in the company and keep his shareholding of 9.5% intact in the firm as per reported news of December 2022.

The Ex-co-founder and MD of Bharatpe, then demanded Rs 4,000 crore from the investors to buy him out, which implied that he needed to be paid a fair market value for his 9.5% stake in the company at a valuation of around $6 billion. "Either I’ll run the company or they buy me out; there is no third option,” said Ashneer. However, as the events unfolded, the rejection of his arbitration pleas by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) and the key investors turned down Ashneer Grover's offer of selling out his 9.5% stake in the company, and he had to leave the organization. According to the BharatPe board, the resignation of the Founder and MD came minutes after he received the Board meeting's agenda, which will include the PWC report submission containing the conduct of Grover and the actions that will be taken against him. However, even while he resigned from the company, the former MD and Co-founder of Bharatpe claimed that he would continue to be the “single largest individual shareholder of the company.”

The Ex-BharatPe Founder and MD has disclosed that it has registered a new company where both he and his wife, will be Directors. The company has reportedly been registered as Third Unicorn Private Limited, which they registered on July 6, 2022, with dreams of raising another unicorn company, as per Tofler reports.

Shashvat Nakrani took a dig at the Ex-co-founder and MD Ashneer Grover, by stating that the latter has created a false narrative about the company. This is one of the few occasions where Nakrani has spoken openly about anything. Shashvat had earlier backed BharatPe CEO Suhail Sameer when Grover remarked that he should be expelled from the company. Nakrani has also added that now that they have ended the boardroom fiasco, they should focus on building while staying careful about keeping the culture of the company untainted.

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Bhavik Koladiya

Bhavik Koladiya is another co-founder of BharatPe, who is popularly known as the Group Head of product and Technology.

Bhavik Koladiya faced disagreements with the BharatPe management, primarily Suhail Sameer (CEO of BharatPe), which is why he resigned from the company, in June 2022.

Shashvat Nakrani

Shashvat Nakrani is also the co-founder of BharatPe. He is an IIT Delhi student, batch 2015-19, who got a bachelor's degree in Textile Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. His hometown is Bhavnagar, India.

Nalin Negi is currently the CEO of BharatPe, which presently operates with 201-500 employees.

BharatPe - How Does It Work?

As you all know almost all the merchants spend more time on the app BharatPe. Lending businesses are always crucial matter it's small ones or big ones. So, BharatPe's lending business is also crucial like the others.

It operates an eponymous service to help all offline merchants. However, such kind of payment apps nearly make no money by enabling free transactions on their platforms. Those processing UPI payments can not even charge a small commission to merchants. The BharatPe login and interface are also easy to use. BharatPe credit card can also be created after the merchant account.

BharatPe - Name, Tagline and Logo

It has launched India's first UPI Bahi Khata for merchants. It's the first Fintech startup in India to enable merchants to pay offline. The BharatPe logo is the property of the trademark owners.

BharatPe - Business Model

The BharatPe business is an Indian QR code-based payments company that operates on a B2B2C model because it helps the customers as well as the merchants or shop owners/retailers and other businessmen/women. The company's app accepts payments from 100+ mobile apps downloaded the Indian mobiles on India's UPI system by offering businesses a single interoperable QR sticker as per various report news in February 2022.

The QR can be scanned and then payments are accepted from all renowned mobile apps such as Paytm, WhatsApp, Mobikwik, Amazon Pay, BHIM, Google Pay, Freecharge, and TrueCaller. Retailers also get immediate credits for transactions made in their bank accounts on the same day.

In 2021, the cricketers Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Sanju Samson, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Shubhman Gill were signed as BharatPe brand ambassadors.

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BharatPe - Revenue Model

The BharatPe revenue model depends on providing its consumers with a digital payments platform and also has a separate app for its merchant friends where the company credits them for their transactions digitally as mentioned above. It actually sails for providing credits to the merchants with cheaper interests.

The company counts on the interdependent cyclical connection of credit and application usage to boost the revenue on its platform. For a startup company like BharatPe, it's important for them to focus especially on the merchant side of their business.

BharatPe - Funding And Investors

BharatPe has secured a total of $808.4 million in funding across 14 rounds. The most recent funding was raised through a Debt Financing round on December 11, 2024.

Here are the funding details of BharatPe:

After the posts vacated by Ashneer and his wife, Madhuri Grover, and the end of the boardroom spat, BharatPe Chairman, Rajnish Kumar asserted on April 2, 2022, that the company will likely bring an IPO in the next 18-24 months.

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BharatPe - Shareholding

BharatPe's shareholding pattern as of March 2023, sourced from Tracxn:

BharatPe - Growth and Revenue

The BharatPe news and recent studies say that the company is growing rapidly and presently it's the 4th largest player in the UPI portion after Google Pay, PhonePe, and PayTm as of December 2021. And the company has achieved this growth by spending very little money on it. BharatPe is in the 3rd spot in the private POS category as of January 2022.

Furthermore, it has also helped the company scale up its business rapidly and contributed around 20% to the overall payments Transaction Processed Value (TPV) of the company. BharatPe has installed over 1 lacs BharatSwipe machines across 16 cities in the country that supports transactions of over Rs 1,400 crore every month as per various reports of July 2021. Furthermore, it has also received an overwhelming response from small merchants across segments including Kirana store owners, restaurant owners, and entrepreneurs with 4-5 outlets.

The lending vertical of BharatPe has exponentially increased over the last 1.5 years. The company has already been successful in disbursing over $300 million in unsecured loans to 2 lacs+ merchant partners, with an outstanding loan book of over $100 million as per various report news in August, 2021.

Furthermore, the company has been estimated to have boarded around 24 lacs+ merchant members on its platform, when reported towards the end of FY20. This came at a cost though.

BharatPe - Financials

BharatPe has seen significant revenue growth over the years, increasing from INR 22.4 crore in FY20 to INR 1,167.5 crore in FY23. However, the company continues to report losses, with expenses consistently exceeding revenue.

BharatPe’s revenue nearly doubled from INR 680.2 crore in FY22 to INR 1,167.5 crore in FY23, but the company continued to report losses, reducing from INR 5,610.8 crore in FY22 to INR 927 crore in FY23.

BharatPe Revenue:

BharatPe’s revenue from operations more than doubled from INR 456.8 crore in FY22 to INR 1,029 crore in FY23, while other income declined from INR 223.4 crore to INR 138.5 crore.

BharatPe Expenses:

BharatPe significantly reduced total expenses from INR 6,296.7 crore in FY22 to INR 2,108.5 crore in FY23, mainly due to a decline in other expenses, which dropped from INR 6,019.7 crore to INR 1,686.1 crore.

BharatPe Profit/Loss:

Losses narrowed from INR 5,610.8 crore in FY22 to INR 927 crore in FY23, indicating a move towards cost optimization despite rising employee benefits and amortization expenses.

Quick Summary:

• Revenue Growth: 71.7% increase in total revenue from FY22 to FY23.
• Expense Reduction: Major cut in expenses from INR 6,296.7 crore in FY22 to INR 2,108.5 crore in FY23.
• Loss Reduction: Losses significantly reduced from INR 5,610.8 crore in FY22 to INR 927 crore in FY23, showing improved financial management.
• Key Business Implication: While BharatPe is still in losses, the decline in expenses and improved revenue indicate a shift toward a more sustainable business model.

BharatPe - Products and Features Launch

BharatSwipe

It launched BharatSwipe, its disruptive card payment acceptance machine in the latter half of 2020. BharatSwipe is a zero rental Swipe machine, which is the first of such systems that India has seen, and therefore, it received an overwhelming response right from its inception. The overall business of BharatPe received a huge boost with the introduction of BharatSwipe. The network of the POS business (BharatSwipe) has grown by 25X and has been made available to over 250 cities in the last 12 months, as confirmed by a BharatPe PR dated March 14, 2022. The BharatPe PR also mentioned that the company has already been successful in deploying 1.25 lakh+ BharatSwipe machines across offline shops. BharatPe has achieved such a feat in a short span of around 1.5 years, which is really laudable and can be hailed as a remarkable scale-up of the POS business.

Gold loans for merchant partners

Bharatpe forayed into the secured gold loans segment by announcing the launch of gold loans for its merchant partners on March 14, 2022. The fintech company collaborated with RBI-approved NBFCs to offer gold loans up to Rs 20 lacs. Furthermore, the rates of gold loans by BharatPe will be competitive to the core at 0.39%.

Loan Application Process for the Merchants

If you are wondering about the loan application process, then the process to apply for loans will be completely digital. Here the merchants applying for loans would be able to view the best offers for them and then apply for the gold loans via the BharatPe app. These loans will be disbursed within 30 minutes after the assessment process of BharatPe is completed. The Suhail Sameer-led fintech company is offering a branch collection facility and a doorstep service as well, all of which are in partnership with the NBFC partners. The merchants would be able to opt for loans for a duration of 6, 9, and 12 months and can repay them via Easy Daily Instalments (EDI).

Investment Platform

For its merchant partners, the company introduced an investment platform in May 2022. According to the press release note, the company will launch P2P investments and bank deposit products for its merchant partners in the initial phase.

Payback(Zillion)

Payback has been rebranded as Zillion in May 2023. Zillion will provide customers with a variety of choices for earning and redeeming at a variety of partners across the nation.

12% Club

BharatPe has partnered with the NBFCs, which are approved by the RBI, to launch the 12% Club, the first-of-its-kind investment, consumer lending, and borrowing app. The 12% Club app is a significant step forward into the consumer space for BharatPe and will be a huge benefit for the customers. By the end of the fiscal year 2021, BharatPe looked to have an AUM of $100 million and a lending AUM of $50 million from the 12% Club app.

BharatPe - Challenges and Controversies

BharatPe Pending Employee Salaries: The Boardroom Battle Turned into a Keyboard Fight

BharatPe is yet to pay a number of its employees, notes Karan Sarki, Senior Associate IT at BharatPe on April 6, 2022. Sarki has blamed the company for not paying their employees including those who have been right from the start of the company. Besides, Karan also mentioned that all of the old admin and staff of BharatPe have been terminated without any reason and have not even been paid off. What's more interesting here is the reply of the Ex-Founder and MD of BharatPe, Ashneer Grover, who asked Suhail Sameer and Hersimran Kaur to look into the matter. Here is the LinkedIn post of Karan Sarki:

Karan Sarki on LinkedIn: Dear Suhail and Shashvat Sir, we haven’t received our salary for March | 146 comments

Dear Suhail and Shashvat Sir, we haven’t received our salary for March month yet despite following so many times on email and visiting the office. All ... 146 comments on LinkedIn

LinkedIn2 Posts

The boardroom spat that BharatPe became famous for, has been dragged to Twitter now, which has become the ground for a keyboard battle. The reason was Karan Sarki's comment where Ashneer Grover replied, which was eventually followed by Aashima Grover, the sister of Ashneer Grover, and the CEO, Suhail Sameer. After Ashneer and Aashima's post that blamed the management of BharatPe including Suhail Sameer, the CEO replied that Ashneer had stolen all the money and that only a small amount was left to pay the employees. Sameer, in conclusion, apologized for his earlier comment on the thread and mentioned that the employees' salaries have already begun to be paid out in full and final, and the other employees' pending payments would also be cleared and have further requested the employees to keep from building stories.

BharatPe Fined Again for Invoices to Fake Vendors

The fintech unicorn has been on the radar of the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) for many months now, where the governing body is scrutinizing the financial data of BharatPe. The company, which was fined by DCGI in October 2021, was fined again for an amount close to Rs 1.5 crore because of the reports that state that the company has generated invoices for non-existent vendors. BharatPe has to deposit Rs 12.5 crore in total. The Suhail Sameer-led company had to deposit Rs 11.5 crore on the earlier occasion as a penalty.

Ashneer Grover Claimed that the Gold Loan Vertical Launch was his Brainchild

After BharatPe had shook off the influence of Ashneer Grover when finally the BharatPe co-founder and MD resigned from the company days after his wife Madhuri was fired by the Board, BharatPe had another controversy. This is after the fintech company announced its plans for disbursing gold loans to merchants. The ex-MD Ashneer Grover has again targeted the CEO, Suhail Sameer, claiming that the idea of launching the gold loans vertical was his and it was Sameer who is credited for the same. Grover claimed that he brought Nikhilesh, who was Grover's colleague back in Kotak and PC Jewellers to foray into the gold loans segment one year back. Along with this, Grover also added that there is an array of other products like the:

• Merchant Stock Option Plan - This was ‘supposed to go live by January 2022’ but has not been launched by the fintech giant even in March 2022.
• 3 Month customer interest-free EMI product - BharatPe was to launch the ‘3 Month customer interest-free EMI product’, which was designed to counter the already existing ‘UNI Cards,’ and would thus, have enabled the fintech major "to help merchants sell items to customers on EMI without the need for a PoS machine."
• UNITY small finance bank depositors - Along with these, Ex-BharatPe MD also mentioned that the UNITY small finance bank depositors were to be provided with a digital interface without which they are highly impeded from accessing their funds. This was also not done by the fintech company.

Grover again took to the media after he was hit because of the Porsche Cayman that he owned after his issue of financial misconduct at BharatPe was ripe. In response, Grover had already criticized Suhail Sameer for buying a BMW Z4 convertible ‘within a year of joining BharatPe'.

Controversies earlier arose when a Bloomberg report, quoting sources, stated that Grover had spent Rs 1 crore on his dining table, which he told his coworkers. Grover even responded to this by tweeting a photo of his dining table and saying that it was ‘not even worth 0.5%’ of the alleged amount as of March 2022.

BharatPe - Acquistion

BharatPe has acquired two companies. The most recent acquisition was TrillianLoans, which was worth $36.05 million, on March 21, 2023.

BharatPe - Partnerships

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)

BharatPe has partnered with NPCI on March 2023. Bharatpe following a recent move by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to link RuPay credit cards to UPI, has joined forces to facilitate credit card transactions on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in India. Through UPI, the project intends to offer clients a quick payment experience along with the advantages of short-term credit and rewards provided by credit cards.

Women Entrepreneurship Platform

In March 2023, BharatPe and Women Entrepreneurship Platform announced their partnership, which will help women all around India on their path to independence and economic growth.

BharatPe - Marketing Campaign

BharatPe Lagao Dhandha Badhao

'BharatPe Lagao, World Cup Jao' is an innovative competition that BharatPe, India's top financial company for merchants, has launched for its merchant partners. In order to support India in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021, BharatPe has offered with its BharatPe QR merchants the chance to travel to Dubai for two days on the company's dime as part of the campaign.

BharatPe - Competitors

BharatPe competitors are:

• Google Pay
• PayTm
• PhonePe
• MobiKwik
• albo

BharatPe - Future Goals

BharatPe, a fintech startup primarily focused on merchant payments, is planning to expand its offerings by launching mutual funds and insurance as its next major product lines. The company aims to evolve into a full-stack financial services platform, according to CEO Nalin Negi.

BharatPe says that there will be rising demands of the shopkeepers, so, to develop their app further and to uplift its performance is their next plan. The company also disbursed around Rs 140 crore. The founder of the company said that there has been no development in the loan demand of the shopkeepers recently so they plan to move forward with it and they think that rental payments and stocking up for inventory payments will soon rise.

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FAQs

What is BharatPe app?

A pioneer in UPI payments and digital money lending for merchants. It is a payment solution application exclusively designed for merchants that can accept payments from any UPI payment app through a single BharatPe QR Code.

Who are BharatPe founders?

BharatPe founders initially were Ashneer Grover, Bhavik Koladiya, and Shashvat Nakrani. However, Ashneer Grover resigned from the company on February 28, 2022, and relinquished his designation of Co-founder and Managing Director of the firm. Now, Bhavik Koladiya also resigned, as per reports dated August 2, 2022, after facing disagreements with the BharatPe CEO, Suhail Sameer.

Is BharatPe a government company?

No. BharatPe is a private fintech company.

Who is the owner of BharatPe?

The former Co-founders Ashneer Grover, Bhavik Koladiya, and Shashvat Nakrani, is the owner of BharatPe.

What is BharatPe Balance?

BharatPe Balance gives the user information on their daily QR collections, balance in investment account, and their available loan limit.

How does BharatPe make money/BharatPe revenue model?

BharatPe makes money through transaction fees, interest on loans, merchant services, and card partnerships.

What is BharatPe launch date?

BharatPe was launched in April 2018.

Is BharatPe safe to invest in?

Yes, it is safe to invest in BharatPe, as a lot of people use the app on a daily basis.

How to delete BharatPe account?

To delete the BharatPe account, a user can go to Settings, and then select the Deactivate account option.

What is BharatPe business model?

BharatPe operates on a merchant-focused fintech model, offering QR-based UPI payments, loans, and BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) services. It earns revenue through merchant transaction fees, lending interest, and financial services.