From Etail To AI: Sachin Bansal In Talks To Raise $700 Mn

Sachin Bansal Looks At Financial Inclusion As CRIDS’ CEO

SUMMARY

• Sachin will be selling his entire 5.5% stake in Flipkart to raise more funds
• Sachin had exited Flipkart in May 2018
• The new fund aims to invest in tech startups

Flipkart’s co-founder and former chief executive Sachin Bansal is considering to start with his entrepreneurial adventure again in the space of an artificial intelligence by the end of this year.

He is also planning to raise a startup fund with $700 Mn -$1 Bn corpus and would be contributing for the 40% of the raised funds from the sale of his entire 5.5% stake in Flipkart.

Several questions were raised on the forced exit of Sachin Bansal in May 2018, post the Walmart-Flipkart deal was signed. Walmart had acquired a 77% stake in Flipkart for $16 Bn. Post the deal, investors such as SoftBank Accel Partners exited from the company.

Though emotions were seen to be split on both ends on the separation of Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. While Sachin Bansal wrote his goodbye post on Facebook, an equally sentimental post also came from Binny Bansal and the Flipsters.

In the Facebook post, Sachin Bansal said, “Sadly my work here is done and after 10 years, it’s time to hand over the baton and move on from Flipkart.”

He had then indicated to invest his time in new projects —

“I’ll focus on finishing a few personal projects which I haven’t been able to find time for. Will catch up on gaming (and see what kids are playing these days) and brush up on my coding skills”, he added.

Sachin Bansal, during his time at Flipkart, together with Binny planted its roots at 447-C, 12th Main, Koramangala in Bengaluru and branched out to 11 offices spread across Koramangala, ORR, and Hosur Road in the city before finally moving to one campus, spread across 8.3 Lakh Sq Ft in the Embassy Tech Village (ETV).

As Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma said during Inc42’s Facebook AMA, he believes that Sachin Bansal is the reason that India has this bright vibrant startup ecosystem.

Well, “once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur,” and the industry clearly awaits Sachin’s new entrepreneurial stint either in form of a founder or investor.

[The development was reported by Livemint.]