Ex-Bharatpe co-founder Bhavik Koladiya takes charge as CEO of OTPless
The ex-BharatPe co-founder, who was working as an independent consultant overseeing tech and product verticals at the fintech unicorn, had exited the Sequoia-backed startup last year reportedly over his disagreements with CEO, Suhail Sameer.
Former co-founder Bhavik Koladiya, who had resigned the fintech unicorn in August 2022, has now taken charge as the CEO of SaaS startup OTPless.
Koladiya shared the development on social media, saying, “2023 is going to be super exciting, as CEO at OTPless.com". Post his BharatePe stint, the techie had joined OTPless as a board member and was working on the product.
The ex-BharatPe co-founder, who working as an independent consultant overseeing tech and product verticals at the fintech unicorn, had exited the Sequoia-backed startup last year reportedly over his disagreements with CEO, Suhail Sameer.
He later shared a statement negating the rumours, saying he plans to take some time off after the exit and his decision to quit is not related to disagreements with anybody. Koladiya added that he is the largest individual shareholder in BharatPe and plans to continue holding BharatPe shares even after the company’s IPO.
Koladiya’s name was removed from the list of founders in December 2018 after Sequoia India joined the board. His conviction for credit card fraud by a US court in 2015 is said to have concerned investors, leading to the company changing his formal role to an independent consultant.
Since the beginning of 2022, four of the fintech unicorn’s senior executives, including Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Vijay Aggarwal, Chief Product Officer (CPO) for lending and consumer products Rajat Jain, and Nehul Malhotra, Head of consumer lending platform PostPe, have left the company to pursue their entrepreneurial interests.
Geetanshu Singla, who served as the Vice President of technology, has also moved on.
The exits have started pouring in months after the controversial exit of BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover, followed by Koladiya putting down papers in August.
Edited by Megha Reddy