BharatPe launches investment platform for its merchant partners

Bengaluru: New Delhi-based fintech firm BharatPe has launched a new investment platform for its merchant partners as it looks to ramp up its wealth management play. The platform will give merchants the option to invest in fixed deposits by Unity Small Finance, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Last year, a partnership between financial services major Centrum and Resilient Innovations, parent of BharatPe, received the central bank’s nod to set up Unity Small Finance, a small finance bank.

BharatPe aims to facilitate investments for more than 20 lakh merchant partners over the next 12 months via the new platform, it said.


The fintech’s merchants will be able to access the investment platform on the BharatPe merchant app by clicking on the Investments tab. BharatPe has also partnered with peer-to-peer (P2P) non-banking companies LenDenClub and Liquiloans to and deploy their savings against loans on these platforms for up to 12% interest.

In January, BharatPe's cofounder Ashneer Grover became embroiled in a major controversy after an expletive-laden audio clip featuring him and a Kotak Mahindra Bank employee went public. The matter escalated over the next two months, with the board roping in auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) to audit the firm for financial irregularities and corporate governance lapses. This eventually led to Grover tendering his resignation and the compmany sacking his wife Madhuri Jain, who was the head of controls at the firm.

BharatPe was last valued at $2.8 billion after it raised $370 million in a round led by Tiger Global in 2021.