Flipkart Cofounder Binny Bansal Plans Yet Another Ecommerce Venture

Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal is reportedly mulling plans to set up a startup in the cross-border ecommerce space.

The new venture will steer clear of the consumer-facing ecommerce segment and will rather offer allied services such as design, product and manpower to Indian and global ecommerce firms, Moneycontrol reported citing sources.

“Think of it like a KPO or a knowledge process outsourcing firm for ecommerce. The idea is to build a global firm that can work with commerce companies and provide them backend support,” one of the sources was cited as saying. 

As per the report, Bansal will likely pump in his own capital in the startup and is currently looking for a chief executive officer (CEO) to spearhead the new venture. The Flipkart cofounder will not seek external capital and will operate the new company as a bootstrapped venture. 

The report also said that the development comes close on the heels of the expiration of the five year non-compete clause (pertaining to ecommerce space) signed by Bansal with Walmart during the latter’s acquisition of Flipkart in 2018. With this, Bansal is free to launch a startup in the burgeoning ecommerce arena. 

The move to start up comes a couple of months after reports surfaced that Bansal had completely exited Flipkart and cashed out his remaining stake in the company for $1 Bn to $1.5 Bn. 

Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal founded Flipkart in 2007 and later sold a majority of the company to Walmart a decade later in 2018 for $16 Bn. Since then, Sachin Bansal has gone on to build IPO-bound fintech startup Navi Technologies while Binny Bansal has tried his hand at angel investing. 

Binny Bansal has participated in the fundraises of big-ticket startups such as fintech giant PhonePe, insurtech major Acko, EV startup Ather Energy, cloud kitchen brand Curefoods, fitness and wellness platform Cult.Fit, among others.

As per reports, Binny Bansal has invested in more than 60 startups spanning multiple sectors. He has backed investment firms such as 021 Capital and Blume Ventures and is also the cofounder of SaaS-based consultancy startup xto10x. 

With India’s ‘most-valued’ startup under his belt as a cofounder, all eyes are now on Bansal’s new venture. While Flipkart turned out to be a gamechanger for the Indian startup ecosystem, it remains to be seen what this venture holds in store for the second ecommerce innings of Binny Bansal.