Sachin Bansal Announces Acquisition Of NBFC; To Take Over As CEO

Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal has finally marked his entry into the financial services segment with the acquisition of Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services Private Limited (CRIDS), a non-banking finance company (NBFC).

The deal is seeing an investment of INR 739 Cr ($104 Mn) by Bansal and the former Flipkart CEO is poised to take over as CEO of CRIDS. In a media statement, Bansal said,  “This acquisition is our entry into financial services. Samit and Anand have built a great company that provides much needed financial access to people who don’t have access to other formal finance. I look forward to working closely with Samit and Anand and building further on the solid work they have done.”

Founded in 2009 by Anand Rao and Samit Shetty, CRIDS provides access to credit for the underbanked population; the majority of its business is in microfinance. It also provides loans for two-wheelers, housing, small business and education. CRIDS operates in Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh.

With the acquisition, Samit Shetty and Anand Rao will continue in their respective roles of growing the existing business segments. The various business units will continue to operate as they have; there will be no significant change in management.

The companies said that Bansal will provide additional support, to create further impetus for business growth.

Samit Shetty, cofounder of CRIDS said, “Sachin brings with him the ability of building huge scale grounds up to CRIDS. We are looking forward to benefiting from his insights and experience with technology, and how that can be leveraged for improving access to financial services, financial inclusion and making our business better, more sustainable and customer centric.”

Sachin Bansal: Flipkart Exit To BAC Acquisitions

Sachin Bansal marked a huge exit from Flipkart when the company was acquired by US retail giant Walmart in 2018. He raked up millions and will keep receiving till 2020. The earnings coupled with years of connections in the Indian startup ecosystem, Bansal has been proving beneficial to the Indian entrepreneurs with his investments and mentorship.

In December 2018, Bansal along with his friend Ankit Agarwal registered BAC Acquisitions Pvt Ltd in Bengaluru with the vision of developing platforms which can optimise business automation and enable digitisation of processes across sectors.

The company had increased its authorised share capital to INR 7.5K Cr ($1.05 Bn) in January 2019, soon after which Bansal had invested another $7 Mn (INR 50 Cr) in BAC Acquisitions.

Bansal has invested across sectors, some of his notable investments include:

• Ather Energy– $51 Mn
• Altico Capital India- $35.16 Mn (INR 250 Cr)
• IndoStar Capital Finance – $35.16 Mn (INR 250 Cr)
• Vogo- $3 Mn (INR 20.8 Cr)
• Ola- $92 Mn

In February, Bansal was reported to be in talks with financial experts on the potential to launch a new venture in the fintech sector. He had also reportedly met Reserve Bank of India executives to figure out the eligibility requirements for starting a bank.

Overall, digital lending has been pegged as one of the fastest-growing segments in the India’s fintech space. A BCG report has predicted the digital lending industry to touch $1 Tn mark in the next five years.