Shashvat Nakrani: The brain behind BharatPe; India's fastest-growing fintech startup

 To drop out of IIT-Delhi, one of the most coveted institutes of the country to establish ‘Bharatpe’ a fintech company, at a time when the concept was quite novel, is no mean feat.

“13 PEOPLE BORN IN THE 90S MADE THE LIST, ALL SELF-MADE. NEW DELHI-BASED SHASHVAT NAKRANI, 23, OF PAYMENT APP BHARATPE IS THE YOUNGEST SELF-MADE INDIVIDUAL” reads an excerpt from IIFL WEALTH HURUN INDIA RICH LIST 2021.

Born in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, Shashvat Nakrani, is one of the three co-founders of BharatPe. He is a 23-year-old IIT dropout and co-founder of the payment app BharatPe. He was in his 3rd year at IIT-Delhi, pursuing a bachelor's degree in Textile Technology when he recognized the business opportunity for a payment gateway, one that was accessible to merchants and did not eat up their margins. To develop a payment gateway that fulfilled these requirements, he made use of the interoperability feature of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI). This is how ‘BharatPe’ came into existence.

BharatPe caters to small merchants and Kirana store owners of India. It enables merchants to conduct transactions for any other payment app like Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, and over 150 other UPI apps with just one QR code. The company offers a range of fintech products including interoperable QR code for UPI payments, Bharat Swipe for card acceptance, and small business financing.

Since its launch in 2018, BharatPe has expanded its network to 100 cities across India, including tier 2 and 3 cities. Through initiatives such as ‘12% Club’, which is a peer-to-peer product, BharatPe continues to cater to the unmet needs of the merchants in the country.

On a concluding note, to sacrifice the job security and certainty from being an IIT pass out to fulfil entrepreneurial pursuits, and take a start-up to such great heights within such a short period is what makes Shashvat a truly deserving of the title- ‘youngest self-made individual’.