Shashvat Nakrani is an Indian entrepreneur and co-founder of BharatPe. He co-founded the company in 2018 while studying at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. In 2021, he was the youngest self-made individual to feature in the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List.
Early life and education Nakrani is from Bhavnagar, Gujarat and comes from a family of educators. His father runs an educational institute in Bhavnagar, where Nakrani completed his schooling. He joined the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 2015 and studied Textile Technology.
While studying at IIT Delhi, Nakrani launched BookMyHaircut, an early venture. In 2018, Nakrani left IIT Delhi to pursue entrepreneurship.
Career Nakrani co-founded BharatPe with Bhavik Koladiya in 2018 while studying at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. While studying at IIT Delhi, Nakrani identified difficulties faced by merchants and small businesses in accepting digital payments. He worked on an interoperable payment system that would allow merchants to accept payments through different applications using a single QR code.
In March 2022, Nakrani was a director and co-founder of BharatPe during a dispute concerning the company's management. He commented publicly on the board's decision to remove Ashneer Grover from his position at the company.
In April 2026, Nakrani announced that he would step back from day-to-day operations at BharatPe from May 1 and transition to a strategic advisory role while remaining a director on the company's board. In the new role, he would continue to be involved in fundraising, Initial public offering (IPO) planning, mergers and acquisitions, and long-term business strategy.
Legal disputes In March 2023, Nakrani filed a lawsuit against Ashneer Grover in the Delhi High Court concerning shares that he alleged had not been paid for.
In December 2023, the Delhi High Court declined Nakrani's request for an interim injunction preventing Grover from transferring or otherwise dealing with the shares, while directing that the court be given prior notice of any proposed transaction involving them.
In September 2024, BharatPe and Grover announced a settlement under which they agreed not to pursue the legal cases filed against each other. Grover was ceased to be associated with BharatPe and no longer held shares in the company.
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