BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover issued a furious rejoinder on Thursday after being linked to the Gensol Engineering controversy. The former Shark Tank India judge insisted that he was the ‘victim’ in the matter — having invested Rs 1.5 crore in BluSmart and Rs 0.25 crore in Matrix. Recent reports have noted that both Grover and BluSmart co-founder Anmol Jaggi had invested in each other’s start-ups between 2023 and 2024.
“Dragging my and my company’s name is this Gensol/BluSmart fiasco is rather shameful and cheap journalism. In fact I am the ‘victim’ of the current scenario having personally invested Rs 1.5 cr in BluSmart and Rs 0.25 cr in Matrix. I hope the business / company can survive the current fiasco for sake of its stakeholders,” Grover wrote on X.
He also lambasted media organisations for leading a ‘witch hunt’ against him and his company and suggested holding masterclasses to ‘teach’ scribes ‘some important career skills’.
According to the Securities and Exchange Board of India, Gensol promoters Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi had diverted funds from the company and used it for personal benefit. The 29-page order also indicated that they had used Rs 50 lakh from the misappropriated funds to invest in Third Unicorn (a start-up run by Grover) and for other other personal expenses, including travel.
Grover reportedly invested in the pre-IPO round of Matrix Gas & Renewables some six months later. The company is promoted by Jaggi and a disclosed related party firm of Gensol. Matrix Gas & Renewables had eventually scrapped its IPO plan in March last year. According to a draft red herring prospectus accessed by Economic Times, Ash Grove LLP had also participated in this pre-IPO round. Official records show Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain are the designated partners of this LLP.