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BharatPe

Indian FintechFinancial TechnologyFounded 2018
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Company data updated: October 2026

Leadership History

BharatPe: CEO History

3 leaders · 2018 to present

Who is the CEO of BharatPe?

Nalin Negi is the CEO of BharatPe, in the role since 2023. The first chief executive was Suhail Sameer, from 2021.

Current CEO
Nalin Negi (since 2023)
First CEO
Suhail Sameer (2021)
Leaders documented
3
Founded
2018
NameRoleFromToYears in role
Nalin NegiCEO2023Present3
Suhail SameerCEO202120232
Ashneer GroverCo-founder & Managing Director201820224
Who was CEO of BharatPe before Nalin Negi?
Suhail Sameer was CEO of BharatPe from 2021 to 2023, before Nalin Negi took over in 2023.

Company Overview

BharatPe is the merchant side of India's UPI story. Founded in 2018, it signed up shopkeepers with one QR code that accepted payments from any UPI app at no charge, then turned their daily payment data into a lending business. The company says it now serves more than 1.7 crore merchants in over 450 cities and has facilitated more than $1.69 billion (₹14,600 crore) in business loans. It also went through one of the most public governance fights in Indian startups, the 2022 exit of co-founder Ashneer Grover, and came out of it under former SBI Card CFO Nalin Negi with its first adjusted profit in FY2025. The company is headquartered in New Delhi, India.

Nalin Negi

CEO

2023 – Present

3 years (current)

Key Decisions & Impact

Negi joined as CFO in August 2022, became interim CEO in January 2023 and full-time CEO on 16 April 2024. He cut costs, focused the business on merchant lending, raised the Trillion Loans stake to 74%, secured the online payment aggregator licence and reported BharatPe's first adjusted profit before tax in FY2025.

Legacy

He spent more than a decade as CFO of SBI Card, taking it through its 2020 IPO, after a career at GE Capital, and has over 28 years in financial services.

Source →

Suhail Sameer

CEO

2021 – 2023

2 years

Key Decisions & Impact

Sameer joined as president in August 2020 and became CEO in August 2021. He ran the company through the Series E, the Unity Small Finance Bank launch and the 2022 dispute with Grover, who unsuccessfully sought his removal from the board.

Legacy

Previously CEO of the FMCG business at the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group. He stepped down on 7 January 2023 and stayed on as a strategic adviser.

Source →

Ashneer Grover

Co-founder & Managing Director

2018 – 2022

4 years

Key Decisions & Impact

Grover ran BharatPe from 2018, leading five equity rounds from a $15.5 million Series A to the $370 million Series E, the merchant lending model repaid from daily QR settlements, the PAYBACK India purchase and the consortium bid with Centrum that created Unity Small Finance Bank. He became managing director when Suhail Sameer was named CEO in August 2021.

Legacy

An IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad graduate and former Grofers CFO, he made BharatPe a national brand quickly. He left in early 2022 after an internal review and settled with the company in September 2024.

Source →

Challenges & Strategic Context

BharatPe's hardest years were about governance. Co-founder and managing director Ashneer Grover left in 2022 after an internal review of alleged financial irregularities, which led to more than two years of litigation before a settlement on 30 September 2024. Co-founder Bhavik Koladiya left the same year and CEO Suhail Sameer stepped down in January 2023. In 2026 BharatPe went into arbitration with Centrum over capital plans at Unity Small Finance Bank. Commercially it competes for shop counters with PhonePe, Paytm and Google Pay, and its lending-heavy revenue is exposed to RBI changes in digital lending rules.

BharatPe CEO and Leadership FAQ

Who is BharatPe's CEO?

Nalin Negi, interim CEO from January 2023 and full-time CEO since 16 April 2024. He joined as CFO in August 2022 from SBI Card.

Who was Suhail Sameer?

BharatPe's CEO from August 2021 to 7 January 2023. He joined as president in August 2020 from the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group and stayed on as a strategic adviser after stepping down.

What was Ashneer Grover's role?

Co-founder who ran the company from 2018 and became managing director in August 2021. He left in early 2022 and settled with BharatPe in September 2024.

Who chairs BharatPe's board?

Rajnish Kumar, former chairman of State Bank of India, chairman since October 2021.

Why was Ashneer Grover fired from BharatPe?

Co-founder Ashneer Grover was forced out following a massive, highly public boardroom brawl involving allegations of severe financial irregularities and toxic workplace behavior.

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Content is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Data sourced from SEC filings, annual reports, and public records. See our full disclaimer and methodology.