Fintech firm Bharatpe on Tuesday appointed BP Kanungo, former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Kaushik Dutta, current chairman of food delivery startup Zomato, as independent directors, the company said in a statement.
The company had earlier inducted former chairman of State Bank of India (SBI) Rajnish Kumar on its board. The Gurugram-based company’s board of directors will now consist of two executive directors Shashvat Nakrani and Suhail Sameer (CEO), five non-executive directors, four investor nominees and two independent directors. While Kanungo will support the fintech to build a profitable business, Dutta will play a major role in taking the the company public in the next 2-3 years, the company said.
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Kanungo has worked in several departments of the RBI and was the nominee director on the boards of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) and National Housing Bank (NHB). Dutta is the co-founder of Thought Arbitrage Research Institute (TARI), a think-tank that works in areas of corporate governance and is also on the boards of several startups.
“The appointments are in line with the company’s aim to build a world class institution and being the torchbearer of corporate governance,” the fintech said. Last year, the startup saw the exit of its founder Ashneer Grover and his spouse Madhuri Jain Grover over corporate governance issues.
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The company in 2021 also continued on its expansion plans; it acquired loyalty programme management firm PAYBACK India and received RBI approval to launch small finance bank in a consortium with Centrum Financial Services. Having a bank in the portfolio will also enable BharatPe to create a float income as well as reduce the cost of capital, brokerage HSBC Global Research had said at the time of the announcement.
So far, the company has raised over $650 million from investors including Tiger Global, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadfast Capital, Coatue Management, Ribbit Capital, Insight Partners, Steadview Capital, Beenext, Amplo and Sequoia Capital.