Top-Level Exits Continue At BharatPe; Now, CPO Ankur Jain Quits To Launch His Own Venture

There seems to be no end to the top-level exits at fintech unicorn BharatPe, as its chief product officer Ankur Jain has stepped down after a stint of over three years.

Jain, a former executive at Walmart Labs, assumed the role of CPO at BharatPe in June 2020. He was responsible for overseeing the entire product life cycle and driving innovation within the company.

“We would like to confirm that Ankur Jain has decided to move on from BharatPe to pursue his entrepreneurial ambitions. He has been an integral part of the company’s journey over the last 3.5 years and has built and led a super talented team that brought to life disruptive fintech products for merchants and consumers,” a BharatPe spokesperson said.

“We are in the process of looking for a seasoned product leader to take over this role and will be making a formal announcement on the same soon,” the spokesperson added.

The development was first reported by Entrackr.

Jain will reportedly launch his own startup in the AL-ML segment.

Earlier this year, Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl, former chief operating officer (COO) of BharatPe, who was later appointed as the chief business officer for the merchant lending division, also quit the fintech startup.

BharatPe, which has been embroiled in a highly-publicised legal battle with its former managing director Ashneer Grover, has been seeing an exodus of senior executives since last year.

The fintech unicorn has seen a number of exits since last year, including chief technology officer Vijay Aggarwal, head of consumer product-PostPe Nehul Malhotra, chief product officer of lending and consumer products Rajat Jain, and vice president of technology Geetanshu Singla. In January, its chief executive officer Suhail Sameer also stepped down.

Founded in 2018, BharatPe enables merchants to accept online payments via QR codes and PoS devices. The fintech unicorn also expanded into the buy now pay later segment last year. BharatPe has raised nearly $580 Mn till date and competes with Paytm, PhonePe, among others.

Last valued at $2.9 Bn, the fintech unicorn’s list of investors includes Tiger Global, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital, Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Steadview Capital, Beenext, and Amplo..

It reportedly clocked a record gross revenue of $23.5 Mn (about INR 195 Cr) in August this year. This translates to an annualised revenue rate of $282 Mn (about INR 2,340 Cr).

The growth was attributed to enhanced revenue from lending business and the successful introduction of new initiatives.

The fintech unicorn’s net loss skyrocketed 3.4X to 5,610.7 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) from INR 1,619.2 Cr in FY21.