Shashvat Nakrani was 19 when he co-founded BharatPe. Now, a decade of drama, a billionaire rating, and certainly one of India’s most public founder fallouts later, he’s stepping again — and gearing as much as construct once more.
BharatPe’s present valuation stands at $2.7 billion, making it a unicorn. The corporate has raised a complete of $584 million throughout 18 funding rounds, with its most up-to-date funding being a $10 million standard debt spherical in March 2026.
Nakrani Strikes to Strategic Advisor Position From Could 1
In a LinkedIn publish, Shashvat Nakrani introduced he’ll transition out of day-to-day operations at BharatPe from 1 Could, transferring right into a strategic advisor function while persevering with to function a board director.
The shift, Shashvat Nakrani was cautious to make clear, will not be a departure.
Nakrani confirmed he’ll stay actively concerned in a number of of the corporate’s most consequential selections – together with fundraising, IPO planning, mergers and acquisitions, and long-term technique.
Shashvat Nakrani additionally famous that he stays BharatPe’s largest particular person shareholder.
“Constructing Has All the time Meant Following Curiosity”
In his personal phrases, Shashvat Nakrani framed the choice as a return to intuition relatively than a retreat from accountability. “Constructing has at all times meant following curiosity,” he wrote, signalling that the pull in direction of new ventures- the identical stressed vitality that drove him to co-found a fintech firm while nonetheless a third-year pupil at IIT Delhi.
Shashvat Nakrani expressed this return to roots brazenly, drawing a direct line between {the teenager} who launched BharatPe and the entrepreneur now trying past it.
The choice, Nakrani stated, got here after a interval of real reflection about what excites him most — a uncommon admission of interiority from a founder who has spent the higher a part of his twenties navigating certainly one of India’s most scrutinised startups.
He additionally expressed confidence in BharatPe’s present management and governance, saying the crew in place is well-positioned to hold the corporate ahead with out his day by day presence.
The IITian Who Made Historical past at 23
To grasp the burden of Shashvat Nakrani’s announcement, it helps to know simply how younger he was when he made his first mark.
In 2021, at simply 23 years of age, Shashvat Nakrani grew to become the youngest particular person to characteristic within the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Wealthy Checklist – a unprecedented distinction that positioned him amongst 13 different self-made billionaires born within the Nineteen Nineties.
Shashvat Nakrani had co-founded BharatPe at 19, alongside Ashneer Grover, while enrolled as a third-year undergraduate pupil at IIT Delhi.
The fintech firm they constructed collectively addressed a real ache level in India’s quickly digitising economic system. BharatPe gives retailers a single QR code able to accepting funds throughout all main apps – together with Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, BHIM, and greater than 150 different UPI-enabled platforms.
The Ashneer Grover Fallout That Shook BharatPe
In December 2022, a day after BharatPe accused its ousted managing director Ashneer Grover and members of his household of embezzling firm funds for private bills, Grover took to Twitter with a pointed counter-narrative- one which positioned Nakrani squarely in his sights.
In a publish that unfold quickly throughout social media, Ashneer Grover wrote: “Doglapan: Shashvat (Co-Founder) to me. Bhai diploma poori karni hai. Ek saal workplace bunk kar ke IIT poora kar leta hoon. Secondary kara dena aur wage bhi mat rokna – investor ko mat batana. Shashvat to Board: No objection in submitting case in opposition to Ashneer.”
The allegation- that Nakrani had quietly taken a 12 months away from the workplace to finish his IIT diploma while asking Grover to not inform traders, minimize to the guts of what Ashneer Grover was calling the fintech firm’s tradition of duplicity. Nakrani didn’t reply publicly to the declare on the time.
The broader dispute between Grover and BharatPe had by that time escalated properly past Twitter. The corporate filed for arbitration beneath Singapore Worldwide Arbitration Centre guidelines, in search of to claw again Grover’s restricted shareholding and his proper to make use of the founder title. Grover held roughly 8.5 per cent of the corporate, of which 1.4 per cent remained unvested and due to this fact susceptible to forfeiture.
BharatPe additionally pursued civil damages, submitting a swimsuit value roughly ₹88 crores in opposition to Grover, his spouse Madhuri Jain Grover, and different members of the family. The Delhi Excessive Courtroom issued a summons in December 2022, with fees encompassing the creation of fictitious distributors, fabricated invoices, legal breach of belief, forgery, and embezzlement. If convicted on essentially the most severe fees, Grover confronted the prospect of a ten-year custodial sentence.
