Exits at BharatPe, Pine Labs; unicorns temper IPO expectations

Two interesting executive movements are taking shape in the fintech world: one at merchant platform Pine Labs, which plans to hit the public markets, and one at payments and credit startup BharatPe.

Pine Labs’ chief operating officer, Nitish Asthana, has put down his papers and will soon move to Bajaj Finserv, where he will head its payments venture, said two people in the know. Asthana had joined Pine Labs in July 2020.

BharatPe group president Gautam Kaushik has also quit. He was the chief executive officer of loyalty platform Payback before joining BharatPe in February 2021. BharatPe acquired Payback India last year and the latter’s team was supposed to report to Kaushik.

His exit comes at a time when BharatPe managing director Ashneer Grover has taken leave till March-end in the backdrop of multiple controversies. The CapTable wrote about the events at the company earlier this week.

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BharatPe and Bajaj Finserv did not respond to queries about the executive movements.