Former BharatPe Cofounder Bhavik Koladiya Takes Charge As CEO Of OTPless

Former BharatPe cofounder and tech lead Bhavik Koladiya has taken charge as the chief executive officer of the fintech SaaS platform OTPless.

Koladiya made the development public in a tweet on Sunday (January 1), informing that he has become the CEO from a board member at OTPless. “2023 is going to be super exciting, as CEO at OTPless.com,” said the ex-BharatPe cofounder.

Koladiya joined the fintech SaaS platform as a board member shortly after his exit from BharatPe. While he exited BharatPe in August, he joined OTPless in September, as per his LinkedIn profile.

OTPless was founded by Tanmay Sagar and Satyam Nathani, who were also the founding members of BharatPe. Further, Dharti Koladiya, wife of Bhavik Koladiya, is also a director of OTPless, per the company’s filings with the Registrar of Companies.

Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Delhi, OTPless is a fintech SaaS platform that, according to its website, enables businesses to enable WhatsApp logins for their users on their websites. OTPless has built a set of APIs which allow businesses to drive more conversations via WhatsApp and allow logins for a streamlined experience. 

The fintech startup also claims to provide a WhatsApp login plugin for websites for free for unlimited users right now. Its client list includes BharatPe and its subsidiary PostPe, Bullspree, Probo and LaundroKart, among others.

Koladiya cofounded BharatPe with Shashvat Nakrani in 2018 and led the fintech unicorn’s product and tech team. In 2015, Koladiya was convicted in a credit card fraud case in the US, which resulted in him keeping a low profile at BharatPe in later years.

In a statement after Koladiya’s exit, BharatPe said that he was an independent advisor and his role changed throughout his stay at the fintech unicorn he cofounded. He donned various hats during his stint at the startup, and his designation kept changing from founder to cofounder and CEO to CTO and CPO and then group president.

Koladiya is also the managing director of Finix Ventures, a consulting firm providing services to non-banking financial institutions (NBFCs). He set up the NBFC in May as an entity to provide consulting services to Unity Bank, a joint venture between Centrum and BharatPe. 

However, media reports following his exit from BharatPe indicated that the deal was off the table. In the statement issued post his exit, the fintech unicorn said that Koladiya has moved away from the company to “spend time on other assignments outside BharatPe”.

The exit of Koladiya, nine months after Ashneer Grover’s well-documented exit from the fintech unicorn, was not the only high-profile exit from BharatPe. Over the last few months, BharatPe has seen as many as eight top-level executives quit, including Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover.

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