BharatPe's CPO Rohan Khara Steps Down: What It Means for the Fintech Ahead of Its IPO
BharatPe's Chief Product Officer Rohan Khara has stepped down from the company, according to an exclusive report dated June 3, 2026. The departure comes roughly two and a half years after Khara joined the Delhi-based fintech in February 2024, and just months after he took on additional responsibilities as Chief Technology Officer following the resignation of CTO Pankaj Goel in June 2025.
Khara had been serving as CPTO, combining both the product and technology functions under a single leader. His exit leaves a significant gap in BharatPe's leadership structure at a critical time for the company.
Rohan Khara is one of India's most experienced product leaders in the fintech space. A Stanford University alumnus with a Master of Science in Management Science and Engineering, he built his career across three emerging markets: India, Indonesia, and Nigeria.
Before joining BharatPe, Khara spent eight years building and scaling financial services products at fintech startups. He served as Managing Director at FairMoney India, having previously been Chief Product Officer for FairMoney's Nigeria and India operations. Earlier in his career, he held product roles at MobiKwik and Quikr. In total, he brings 17 years of experience across product management, design, and innovation.
When BharatPe brought him on board in February 2024, the appointment was significant. The company had just emerged from years of turbulence, including the high-profile exit of founder Ashneer Grover, multiple leadership changes, and a sustained rebuilding phase. Khara was hired to lead product development, merchant and consumer product design, and user research across the entire BharatPe Group, reporting directly to CEO Nalin Negi.
At the time of his appointment, Khara had said his focus would be to build innovative products that drive value for merchants and consumers while balancing innovation with fiscal discipline. "BharatPe is one of the few fintechs that have stayed firm on their commitment to driving financial inclusion," he said.
The Broader Leadership Context
Khara's departure is the latest in a series of senior-level exits that BharatPe has navigated over the past few years. The company has seen multiple CEOs, co-founder exits, and CTO changes since its founding in 2018 by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani.
After Grover's forced exit in 2022 and CEO Suhail Sameer's departure in January 2023, Nalin Negi stepped in as interim CEO before being confirmed as permanent CEO in April 2024. Under Negi's leadership, BharatPe has stabilised significantly. The company recorded a revenue increase of 182% during his tenure as interim CEO and achieved its first EBITDA-positive month in October 2023.
In FY25, BharatPe posted an adjusted profit before tax of ₹6 crore, a significant recovery from a loss of ₹342 crore in FY24. The company is backed by Peak XV, Tiger Global, Beenext, Steadfast Capital, and Ribbit Capital.
Why the Timing Matters
Khara's exit comes at a sensitive moment for BharatPe. The company is actively preparing for an IPO, which CEO Nalin Negi has confirmed is being targeted after FY26. BharatPe is planning a pre-IPO funding round as part of this process and is working to achieve full PAT-positive status before listing.
The company's product and technology function was already under pressure after the CTO's exit in 2025. Khara's additional charge as CTO had provided short-term stability, but the combined CPTO role was always a consolidation measure rather than a long-term structure. His departure now reopens both the CPO and CTO roles simultaneously.
For a company that is trying to demonstrate stability and execution confidence to investors ahead of a public listing, back-to-back product and technology exits are a narrative the leadership will need to address clearly and quickly.
What BharatPe Is Building
Despite the leadership changes, BharatPe's business has continued to grow. The company offers UPI QR-based payments, merchant lending through its NBFC arm Trillionloans, in which it holds 74% and plans to acquire full ownership, point-of-sale devices, soundboxes, and consumer credit through its PostPe vertical. It serves millions of offline merchants across India and has consistently positioned itself around financial inclusion for the underserved MSME segment.
The company's product roadmap includes expanding its lending vertical, growing its consumer payments business, and deepening its merchant ecosystem. Whether Khara's departure delays any of these priorities will depend on how quickly BharatPe finds a replacement and how much institutional product knowledge transitions during the handover.
What Comes Next
BharatPe has not made a public statement at the time of writing about Khara's replacement or the timeline for filling the role. Given that the company is in a pre-IPO phase with investors watching closely, the speed and quality of this hire will matter.
The company has proven before that it can rebuild after difficult transitions. The question now is whether the momentum built under Negi's stabilisation phase holds through what is shaping up to be a pivotal 18 months for the business.