Ex-COO Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl latest to exit BharatPe

Former chief operating officer (COO) of BharatPe Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl who was recently redesignated as the chief business officer of the merchant lending division of BharatPe is exiting the company in September, as per sources.

Merchant lending has been one of the biggest revenue drivers and most important vertical for the company. In May, BharatPe also announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Mumbai-based non-banking financial company (NBFC) Trillion Loans with an aim to boost its lending business.

The company claims to be facilitating loans of over Rs 500 crore every month to its merchant partners.


Bahl’s exit is followed by a slew of senior level exits that the fin-tech witnessed in the last year and a half.

"We would like to confirm that Mr. Bahl is moving on from BharatPe to pursue his entrepreneurial passions. He has been an integral part of the organisation and contributed to the growth of the company," the company spokesperson told ET Prime.

Bahl played a crucial role in the restructuring of the organisation post the exit of Grover. He had joined the company in 2020 as the head of operations Before joining BharatPe, he worked across organizations such as Airtel Payments Bank, Paytm Bank and Fortis Healthcare.

Bahl is likely to set up an early stage investment firm thus joining the league of his former colleagues Suhail Sameer and Bhavik Koladiya, one of the sources quoted above said requesting anonymity. However he declined to divulge further details.

The year 2022 at BharatPe began with the controversial exit of its mercurial founder Ashneer Grover played out in full public glare. Then another co-founder, Bhavik Koladiya, who was the tech backbone of the company, left BharatPe.

The rest of the year saw over a dozen exits with most of them working in the tech and product segments.

Senior executives, including chief technology officer, Vijay Aggarwal; head of consumer product-PostPe, Nehul Malhotra; the chief product officer of lending and consumer products, Rajat Jain; and vice-president technology, Geetanshu Singla, exited to start their own ventures.

The last to join the queue was chief executive Suhail Sameer who exited in January this year.

Interestingly, Koladiya, Sameer and co-founder Shashvat Nakrani are all backing the BharatPe alumni who are starting up with angel cheques.