Bharatpe joins the Unicorn club

Noida: Merchant payments and financial services provider BharatPe has raised $370 million in a primary and secondary mix, as a part of a Series E funding round led by new investor New York-based Tiger Global Management. Its valuation rose more than threefold to $2.85 billion in just six months time. BharatPe becomes 19th unicorn in 2021 with $370 Mn round led by Tiger Global.

The fintech company had raised $108 million in February this year at a valuation of $900 million. Ashneer Grover , the co-founder of BharatPe will assume the role of managing director at the company and will continue driving its strategy, technology and product functions, as well as managing capital fundraising.This is a three-fold jump in the company’s valuation within six months. It was valued at around $922 million during its last fundraise in February.

BharatPe has also made significant changes to its top management. Ashneer Grover will be elevated to the Managing Director position whereas Suhail Sameer has been appointed as the new CEO of the company and will be responsible for the company’s overall business, monetisation, brand, banking foray, lending and merchant network expansion. Co-founder Ashneer Grover will take over the role of managing director and will lead strategy, product, technology, capital (IPO, equity and debt) and focus on the overall people agenda for the company. Suhail said that they hope to scale the business 10X from hereon.

Ashneer Grover said, “We now have US$ 0.5 billion cash on books and are extremely well capitalised to deliver on our mandate to build India’s first truly Digital Bank. Rarely does one witness the original thesis play out without any pivot. BharatPe will remain maniacally focused on lending as the core business and small merchants as our primary target segment.”