Ashneer Grover of BharatPe on a voluntary leave of absence until the end of March

Ashneer Grover, co-founder and managing director (MD) of BharatPe, stated on Wednesday that he will be taking a voluntary leave of absence from the company until the end of March.

"For now, the Board has accepted Ashneer's decision which we agree is in the best interests of the company, our employees and investors, and the millions of merchants we support each day," the company said in a statement.

Meanwhile, CEO Suhail Sameer will lead the company, according to the statement.

Grover's abrupt departure from the company came amid a backlash over his reported usage of derogatory language toward Kotak Group employees.

Grover allegedly aggressively abused a bank employee after not receiving a share allotment in Nykaa's initial public offering, according to a viral audio clip (IPO).

In response, the BharatPe co-founder published a statement claiming that the video was "fake" and intended to extort money.

BharatPe was co-founded by Grover and Shashvat Nakrani in 2018. Over 75 lakh retailers in 150 cities use BharatPe. Since its inception, the company has facilitated the disbursement of loans totaling over Rs 3,000 crore to its merchants.