Koladiya founded the fintech firm in 2017 with Shashvat Nakrani, his schoolteacher’s son. In 2018, they began searching for a chief executive for the company and eventually joined hands with Grover.
Shortly thereafter Koladiya, who held a 30.21% stake in the company, had to exit the cap table owing to his past conviction for credit card fraud in the US.
“I cannot comment on this matter as it is sub-judice now. You can speak to my attorneys – Sim & San,” Koladiya told ET Prime.
According to people privy to the development, his involvement in the company would have hindered fundraising talks with big institutional investors. so Koladiya had to step down and let go of his shares.
Conventionally, people pledge such shareholding to existing stakeholders with a call-option agreement, which is a contract between two or more parties under which the buyer earns the right to exercise his option to buy a particular asset from the seller for a specific period of time.
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According to documents accessed via the Registrar of Companies, Koladiya transferred his shares to Grover, Nakrani, and Mansukhbhai Mohanbhai Nakrani, and some other early-stage and angel investors in December 2018. However, ET Prime couldn’t independently ascertain the agreement that was signed between these parties in lieu of the shares transfer.In multiple conversations, Grover has maintained that Koladiya had sold his shares to him and other buyers including Nakrani and early investors. However in a statement, Koladiya told ET Prime he had triggered an agreement he had signed with Nakrani and Grover in 2018 to get his ‘pledged shares’ of BharatPe.
He also said that while Nakrani had honoured the deal following which he was expected to become a shareholder of BharatPe, Grover had not reverted.
However, what made the discomfort visible was Suhail Sameer’s denial of his claim.
In an interview with ET Prime, Sameer, then chief executive of BharatPe, said that he didn’t know what Bhavik’s contract said or even if there was one.
“I do not know if there was a transfer of shares with a promise of you giving it back or anything else. Even if you have sold it to me for peanuts, a sale is a sale. As of now, Bhavik is not a shareholder in the company, Shashvat is not transferring his shares,” Sameer had told ET Prime.
Grover and BharatPe didn’t immediately respond to queries.
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