Sachin Bansal’s Chaitanya Set To Acquired by Ananya Birla’s Svatantra for INR 1,479 Cr

Move likely to catapult Svatantra to become the 2nd largest NBFC-MFI with a combined AUM of INR 12,409 Cr

In one of the biggest deals in the microfinance industry, Ananya Birla’s Svatantra Microfin Private Limited (Svatantra), has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Chaitanya India Fin Credit Private Limited (Chaitanya), a wholly owned subsidiary of Navi Group (Navi). The transaction of INR 1,479 Cr is expected to be completed by the end of 2023, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and customary closing adjustments.

The proposed acquisition is expected to transform the microfinance landscape, catapulting Svatantra into the second largest microfinance entity in India with a reach of more than 3.6 million active customers through 1,517 branches across 20 states and a combined AUM of INR 12,409 Cr as on March 31, 2023.

Svatantra and Chaitanya are new generation NBFC-MFIs with a strong track record of growth and profitability, leveraging technology to create impact and offer financial services to rural India.

Ms Ananya Birla

Commenting on the development, Ms. Ananya Birla, Founder and Chairperson of Svatantra, said, "Over the years, the Indian Microfinance industry has been a catalyst in the profound transformation of the Indian financial services sector by democratising finance.” She added, “The proposed acquisition will propel Svatantra to a significant leadership position. The combined entity will command a substantial reach, enabling the delivery of a diverse array of financial services to our clients across a geographically diverse portfolio. We are committed to being a responsible lender, and I believe our synergistic strengths and shared ethos will accelerate our ongoing journey to create a unique, valuable and impactful financial services entity. I am extremely proud of the team at Svatantra and the relentless efforts they put in everyday towards our shared vision.”

“We are pleased to announce the proposed sale of Chaitanya to Svatantra,” said Navi Chairman and CEO, Mr. Sachin Bansal. “We have seen Chaitanya grow almost 6X in the last 4 years, making credit accessible to rural India. This transaction is in line with our strategic plan to focus on our digital-first businesses, as we continue our digital-first financial services through the Navi Group. We believe that Svatantra is a good fit for Chaitanya and that the company will continue to grow and prosper with the combined expertise of both teams. I am very proud of the hard work the team has put in to be able to achieve this exponential growth in such a short span. As they take on this legacy, I want to extend my best wishes to them for their future endeavours.”

JM Financial Limited acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Navi for this transaction.

About Svatantra Microfin Private Limited (Svatantra)

Svatantra was incorporated in 2012 by Ms. Ananya Birla. It started its operations in March 2013. In a short span Svatantra has emerged as the most differentiated process and technology-driven microfinance entity, which offers microcredit at affordable rates in the country. Svatantra today with a team of 7,000+ employees serve over 2.2 million rural customers across 19 states with an AUM of INR 7,499 Cr (as on March 31, 2023). Svatantra’s compounded growth rate is that of 118% (FY15-23). The organisation provides affordable financial and non-financial solutions to rural women who are entrepreneurs themselves.

With a central aim of financial inclusion, Svatantra is the only MFI with 100% cashless disbursements, since inception, facilitating activation of bank accounts for its clients. The AA- rated organisation was awarded the best microfinance organisation of the year in 2021 and was placed in the top 30 best places to work in its segment by globally recognized Great Places To Work for two years in a row (2020 & 2022). In addition, Svatantra MHFC, her micro housing arm, is the only housing institution to focus on the EWS/LIG segment, and to have a completely branchless model.

About Chaitanya India Fin Credit Private Limited (Chaitanya)

Chaitanya, founded in 2009, was acquired by Sachin Bansal in October 2019 (along with its parent entity, now called Navi Finserv Limited) for about 150 Cr. Chaitanya has focused on servicing rural India digitally with support from its parent company Navi, and making credit accessible to all of rural India. Since the acquisition Chaitanya’s business has seen a compounded growth rate of 77% YoY, increasing its book size from about INR 900 Cr in March 2020 to over INR 4900 Cr in March 31, 2023. Chaitanya services 1.4 million customers across 12 states in India with an AUM of over INR 4,900 Cr. It had a net worth of INR 721 Cr as on March 31, 2023 which was shored up through a further capital raise of INR 75 Cr in June 2023. Chaitanya, currently A rated (CRISIL), has moved up 4 notches in its credit rating in less than 4 years through the help of its high-quality team of 6,000+ employees. Chaitanya is one of the few MFIs that was not impacted by COVID, in fact it continued to grow at a rate faster than the industry average. Despite the exponential growth in business Chaitanya maintains one of the best collection efficiencies in the industry.

About Navi Group (Navi)

Adopting a mobile-first approach, utilising strong in-house technology and product expertise, Navi is building customer-centric financial products. It is uniquely positioned as the leading end-to-end digital ecosystem player with complete control over customer experience in all three non-payments financial service offerings – lending, insurance, and asset management. Co-founded by Sachin Bansal and Ankit Agarwal, Navi is headquartered in Bangalore.

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Flipkart Founders backed AI Firm Inkers Partners with IndiVillage in Bid to Transform Road Safety

Inkers, a Bengaluru-based startup backed by Sachin and Binny Bansal among other investors, has signed a deal with IndiVillage to deliver a cutting-edge road safety solution for a leading global automobile player. The partnership will see IndiVillage provide data analytics support to Inkers' breakthrough machine vision offering for the automotive industry.

Inkers was founded by Rohan Shravan and Manish Giri, IIT Kharagpur alumni and tech enthusiasts, to deliver intelligent video analytics solutions like visual workflow automation, object detection, tracking, and facial recognition. At the heart of its business is InkVision - an AI operating system delivering metadata for all camera-recognised images including faces and objects, provided through boxed and turnkey solutions. The company's value proposition has quickly caught the attention of the industry, earning it no fewer than 45 clients including industry leaders such as Airbus, Zeiss, Nvidia, Levi's, Britannia and Landmark Group.

The partnership with IndiVillage will help Inkers deliver a breakthrough solution for an automobile giant with safety at the forefront of its business. The implementation will use thermal imaging in all of the manufacturer's vehicles to detect any driver impairments by measuring changes in their blood sugar up to 30% in addition to 28 other potential diseases. Additionally, the project includes a video solution for facial recognition designed to highlight any structural anomalies. Already in use extensively in healthcare, the use of thermal imaging in consumer automobiles is a landmark industry event and could signal a new era in automobile safety.

Rohan Shravan, Founder, Inkers Technology

Best-in-class data analytics are crucial to the implementation, making it imperative to find a robust analytics partner. Speaking about the importance of the partnership, Rohan Shravan, Founder at Inkers Technology, said, "Our goal was to transform the problems of visual perception using industry-leading AI and ML. Our solutions help companies make sense of what machines are seeing so they can deliver powerful, efficient, and safe solutions at scale. This automotive project could have an impact on millions of lives, and we are committed to excellence at every step of execution. IndiVillage's strong technical capabilities mean that they are great at helping us analyse thermal data sets. The company is also extremely proactive and offers outstanding quality, which allows us to focus on creating machine vision modules of the future. The fact that they combine this capability with doing business for good is the icing on the cake."

IndiVillage's offers services such as image and data annotation, natural language processing, and content optimisation to Technology and e-commerce companies. The company's 'Business for Good' philosophy means that the company hires all employees from an otherwise marginalised rural populace and reinvests all profits within the community to further education, healthcare, and access to clean drinking water.

Commenting on the partnership with Inkers, IndiVillage CEO, Smita Malipatil said, "We have always maintained that profits, purpose, and impact go hand in hand. Working with a startup like Inkers, backed by investors like Sachin and Binny Bansal, is a shot in the arm for our operations, and validates the quality of our services and solution. We firmly believe that Inkers will transform machine vision, globally, and are proud to partner with them in this journey." 

Smita Malipatil, CEO, IndiVillage

IndiVillage was recently named in The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) Impact Sourcing Champions Index of global leaders in impact sourcing, which features organisations that have used impact sourcing to make a profound contribution to disadvantaged communities with limited prospects.

IndiVillage is also the first Indian ITeS company to be certified as a B-Corp organization, one that combines purpose and profit with distinction. Certified B Corporations are legally mandated to factor in a broader ecosystem, including employees, clients, suppliers, the community, and the environment in all decision-making processes.

About IndiVillage

IndiVillage offers cutting edge solutions, including image and data annotation, natural language processing, and content optimization for some of the world's leading technology and e-commerce companies including Amazon, Appen, Alegion, Swiggy, and Mercato. It follows a "profit-for-all" model, reinvesting profits into the rural communities where its employees live. 

Over the last decade, IndiVillage has impacted over 35,000 lives through sustainable community development initiatives such as access to clean drinking water, improved livelihoods, better healthcare, and standardized education. IndiVillage is among a select set of five Indian companies that have obtained the B Corp certification, which signals that the organization's operations and business model meet the highest global standards of verified performance on social and environmental dimensions.

IndiVillage was recently named as a 'Company to Watch' by The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals' (IAOP) in their Impact Sourcing Champions Index. The index features organisations that have used impact sourcing to make a profound contribution to disadvantaged communities with limited prospects.

U GRO Capital redeems NCDs worth Rs.50 Cr To Pay Back Entire Debt to Sachin Bansal's Firm

U GRO Capital, a BSE listed, technology-enabled small business lending platform, announced that it has decided to redeem non-convertible debentures (NDC) worth Rs.50 crore with the face value of Rs. 10 lakh each before the maturity date. The early redemption of NCDs underlines U GRO Capital’s well-capitalised business model and inherent balance sheet strength at a time when most NBFCs are struggling with liquidity stress. 

The liquidity scenario has worsened in the NBFC sector, as despite offering moratorium to the borrowers in line with the RBI notification, NBFCs haven’t received similar reprieve from the banks. 

are going through liquidity crunch Although the NBFCs have offered moratorium to their borrowers in line with the RBI notification, they haven’t received similar reprieve from the banks to manage the liquidity crunch. However, despite offering moratorium options to its borrowers, U GRO Capital managed to redeem NCDs before the maturity date banking on its conservative asset liability mismatch and liquidity-related policies. 

“In a challenging market scenario, our ability to honour the liability underlines the strength of our business model in withstanding liquidity stress. We maintain the highest level of corporate governance which has led to an extremely conservative asset liability mismatch policy. We have created a granular and diversified liability line which includes multiple terms loans from PSU and private sector banks. We have also actively securitised portfolios. All these have enabled us in facilitating the early redemption of the NCDs in a pretty challenging economic environment,” said Shachindra Nath, Executive Chairman and Managing Director, U GRO Capital.  

A Sachin Bansal-owned entity bought NCDs worth Rs.50 crore on October 3, 2019.

U GRO capital is one of the few tech-based small business lending platforms that have received a long-term rating of 'A' with a stable outlook and a short-term rating of 'A1' by Acuité within six months of starting its commercial operations. The company broke even in the first year. 

Sachin Bansal through his Navi Technologies Buys DHFL General Insur for ₹100 Cr - Report

Flipkart co-founder and former CEO, Sachin Bansal, has reportedly acquired DHFL General Insurance from Wadhawan Global Capital (WGC) for around Rs. 100 crore. The acquisition, which is said to be a distress sale for Kapil Wadhawan-led WGC group, has been done via Sachin Bansal co-founded Navi Technologies, reported media outlets including Economic Times and Business Today.

With this acquisition deal, Sachin Bansal has entered into insurance business, besides being a prominent investors in technology startups such as Ola, Vogo and Bounce, among others.

WGC, which is the parent company of Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), has admitted for bankruptcy recently. According to the reports, Navi Technologies (formerly BAC Acquisitions) has bought out the entire stake in DHFL. Navi was co-founded by Bansal with his IIT-Delhi batchmate Ankit Agarwal after selling his stake in Flipkart.

Notably, WGC also owns other financial services entities such as Aadhar Housing Finance, Avanse Financial Services, DHFL Pramerica Asset Managers, DHFL Pramerica Life Insurance and DHFL General Insurance.

DHFL is also an investor in a few startups. In 2017, EarlySalary, a Pune-based startup that offers Salary Advances and Instant Cash Loans, had raised funding of $4 Million co-led by DHFL.

To recall, last month Navi Technologies has also acquired Mavenhive, a Bengaluru-based technology consulting firm.

Navi is also an investor in grocery and milk delivery startup MilkBasket, which had raised Rs 20 crore ( ~ US$2.863 million) in venture debt led by Navi Technologies in April last year.

The acquisition report comes within a few hours after Bansal's another fintech venture, Chaitanya India Fin Credit, has applied for universal bank license from India's central bank RBI. Sachin Bansal holds majority stake in Chaitanya India Fin Credit, which is a microlending firm and got a NBFC license from RBI in the year 2009. Bansal has invested Rs 739 crore in Chaintanya, in September last year.

In 2016, Sachin Bansal along with his Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal were chosen for the extremely prestigious "Asian of the Year" as part of a group called the "The Disruptors" by the Straits Times of Singapore.

Sachin Bansal's Chaitanya India Fin Credit Applies for Universal Banking License

Within four months of Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal acquiring majority stake in Chaitanya India Fin Credit, the microlender on Friday said it has applied to RBI for universal bank license.

Bansal had acquired Chaitanya in September with an investment commitment of Rs 739 crore.

The Reserve Bank, which is very selective about who enters the banking fray, had earlier made universal bank licenses available on tap.

If given a license, Chaitanya will be the second microlender after the West Bengal-focused Bandhan to be granted a universal banking license. Other microlenders operate as small finance banks.

"Building a universal bank is a reflection of our commitment to provide financial services to those who need them most," Bansal, chief executive, Navi Technologies, which had invested in Chaitanya said. Chaitanya was founded in 2009 and operates 40 branches in Karnataka, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Jharkhand, an official statement said.

"Our vision is to go beyond what hitherto has been broadly defined as 'financial inclusion' and provide access to formal financial services using technology that people can use intuitively and easily," Bansal said.

The company statement said it aims to make banking simple, accessible and affordable through a consumer-centric and technology-driven approach.

Chaitanya will focus on retail and small enterprises segment, the statement added.

Navi Chief financial Officer Ankit Agarwal said the company's aim is to look at a customer's financial journey in its entirety and not just concentrate on "episodic transactions".

RBI had discontinued its practice of what had turned out into one round of licensing for universal banks in a decade, after selecting Bandhan and infra lender IDFC as successful applicants among over two dozen in the fray in 2013.

Amongst those who were rejected were industrial conglomerates, brokerages and also a microlender.

The RBI has since then come out with fresh guidelines in 2016, making such licenses 'on tap', but made public its discomfort to let in industrial conglomerates, realty players and brokerages. PTI AA KPM BEN

MilkBasket Raises $2.85 Mn in Debt Funding from Sachin Bansal's BAC Acquisitions

Gurgaon headquartered grocery and milk delivery startup MilkBasket has raised an additional Rs 20 crore ( ~ US$2.863 million) in venture debt led by Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal’s BAC Acquisitions, reported Economic Times citing sources.

With this funding, Milkbasket has raised close to $19 million in total from seven rounds since its inception in 2015. Prior to this, the company had last raised $7 million in Series A from Mayfield Fund, in December.

Mikbasket, which competes with ZopNow, Supr Daily, Country Delight and DailyNinja, counts high profile investos as it backers that include Kalaari Capital, Unilever Ventures, EVC Ventures, BeeNext, and Blume Ventures.

Launched in 2015, by Anant Goel, Anurag Jain, Ashish Goel, Ekwe Chiwundu Charles and Yatish Talavdia, Milkbasket is touted as India's first subscription-based micro-delivery service fulfilling daily dairy essentials and household needs of consumers. The company closed FY18 with Rs 35 crore in revenue.

Last month, Milkbasket made its first acquisition when it acquired Noida-based Veggie India, an online store for organic fruits and vegetables.

Sequoia-backed DailyNinja, also a hyper-local delivery startup for milk and groceries, had raised $5.5 million from Matrix Partners India, in September last year. The closest competitor of Milkbasket has raied total of $10 Mn and made two small acquisitions of -- WakeupBasket and 4amShop, both based out of Hyderabad.4

Mumbai-based SuprDaily, which is backed by Y Combinator, is also into daily subscription business for milk along with bread, eggs, coconut water, etc.. SuprDaily has raised a total of ₹10 crore in funding over three rounds, accoding to the data by Crunchbase.

Notably all three -- MilkBasket, DailyNinja and SuprDaily were launched in same year of 2015 when Indian startup space was going through funding crunch.

Sachin Bansal Reportedly Invests in Scooter Rental Startup Vogo

Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has invested an undisclosed amount in the Bengaluru-based scooter rental startup Vogo, which is also backed by cab-hailing firm Ola, which in turn is also an investee company of Bansal.

Bansal has invested in Vogo as a debt investment through his treasury department which is managing some of his money and investing in a bunch of startups, reported Business Standard citing a person familiar with the matter.

Last December, Vogo raised $100 million from Ola, which would allow the later to add fleet of two-wheelers to the Ola app to enable its users to rent the two-wheeled devices. So far, Vogo has raised a total of $117 million in funding over five rounds leaving out this reported funding, which is yet to confirmed by Sachin Bansal or Vogo.

Vogo is counts many high profile investors including Matrix Partner, Kalaari Capital, Stellaris Venture Partners and Pawan Munjal, Chairman & CEO of Hero MotoCorp, among others.

Currently available at limited pick up and drop off points across Bangalore, Hyderabad, Manipal and Mysore, Vogo lets its customers to rent out scooters for short one way trips. Each scooter has a VOGO box attached that lets customers access the key without any human intervention and start riding. It has a fleet of over 4,000 scooters as of now.

Vogo ( Vehicle On the GO) was founded in 2016 by Anand Ayyadurai, an alumnus of Vishwakarma Institute of Technology in Pune and IIM-Ahmedabad, along with Padmanabhan Balakrishnan and Sanchit Mittal.

In September last year, self-drive rental platform Drivezy joined hands with Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. to receive 3,000 scooters on the former's platform in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Bangalore-based Drivezy is reportedly looking at raising about $100 million in equity funding from Softbank and Amazon.

Sachin Bansal Reportedly Invests $21 Million in Ola

A week after Ola has raised $74 million from existing investor Steadview Capital, Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has invested $21 million (~ ₹ 149 crore) in Ola through his individual capacity, according to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (ROC) sourced from data intelligence firm Paper.VC.

The fund infusion has come in as part of the ongoing Series J round of Ola.

ANI Technologies Pvt, the parent firm of Ola, is allotting 70,588 fully and compulsorily cumulative Series J preference shares having a face value of Rs 10 at a subscription price of Rs 21,240 to Bansal. According to a source privy to the development, this money is part of a larger round size of Rs 650 crore which is to come from Bansal. However RoC has not been updated with the other documents as yet.

Ola last announced a fund-raise of $1.1 billion from China’s Tencent Holdings and existing investor SoftBank Group in October last year and said it was in talks to raise another $1 billion.

This latest fund raise is expected to be a part of the $1 billion, the company has been trying to raise. Last year, it also added $50 million of funding from Hong Kong-based private equity firm Sailing Capital and China-Eurasian Economic Cooperation Fund, a Chinese state-backed investment fund.

This is likely to be one the biggest investment of Sachin Bansal, who has earlier too invested in dozen of other Indian startups. Bansal is also setting up a $1 billion fund and supposedly establishing a holding company through which he will run his new businesses and make investments as well.

Ola, which has recently invested $100 million in Vogo, a scooter rental startup based out of Bangalore, is also set to enter online medicine delivery and is reporttedly in discussions to invest or even acquire Myra Medicines, a medicine delivery startup based out of Bangalore which shares Matrix Partners as common investor with Ola

Since early last year, Ola has also expanded to overseas markets. Six months after foraying into Australia, Ola launched its operations in the United Kingdom in September 2018.

Sachin Bansal to Start a Holding Company for Investing in AgriTech and Fintech Ventures

Poster boy of Indian entrepreneurs, Sachin Bansal, post exiting Flipkart, which he co-founded back in 2007, is all set to start his second innings as an investor, mentor for startups and entrepreneurs and for same he has reportedly establishing a holding company through which he will run his new businesses and make investments as well.

A holding company is a company that owns other companies' outstanding stock and it usually does not produce goods or services itself instead its purpose is to own shares of other companies to form a corporate group. In few of advantages of a holding company are -- to consolidate its compliance and financial risks, minimize its tax, and facilitate opportunities for growth.

According to a report by Madhav Chanchani, Economic Times, Sachin Bansal has roped in investment banke, as a partner and founding employee of the proposed holding firm.

Bansal, who exited Flipkart in May following Walmart’s acquisition of a majority stake in it, will directly operate his new businesses as well as invest for large minority and majority stakes in the agri-tech and fintech segments, these people said.

Although the exact time as when will they both launch this proposed holding firm is not clear yet however the focus of the company will agri-tech and fintech segments as these are two of the most emerging technology segmemts in India. Bansal is expected to deploy a large chunk of his capital in these two sectors.

Agarwal was until recently was a director at Bank of America, where he worked on interest rate trading. Prior to that, he was employed with Deutsche Bank.

Sachin Bansal, who sold his 5.5% stake in Flipkart for about $1 billion when Walmart acquired a 77% stake in the e-commerce firm, is expected to have pocket $750-760 million from the stake sale after deducting taxes.

Since then, Bansal has been busy evaluating investments in India’s internet ventures and a number of reports and speculations are going around including his plan start venture capital fund of up to $1 billion for investing in startups as well as considering launching an artificial intelligence (AI) startup.

Before Flipkart got acquired by Walmart, both the co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, had quietly incorporated a new company called 'Sabin Advisors' in January this year. The company, which still exist, was reportedly for new businesses and was expected to include venture capital funding and insurance. But eventually Walmart came in to the scene and overtook everything and the Sabin Advisor plan didn't took off as expected.

Now in a dramatic and unpredictable sequence, Sachin Bansal has parted his ways with Binny Bansal professionally and is said to have partnered with Ankit Agarwal, who like Binny is too his colleague in his alma mater IIT-Delhi.

Last month it was also reported that Sachin may invest $100 million in homegrown cab hailing firm Ola in what would be called as biggest investment in personal capacity. Ola's founder Bhavish Aggarwal is said to be very close to Bansal and they both enjoys a good rapport with each other.

Earlier this month, it was also reported that Bansal is in talks to invest about $30 million in electric bike maker Ather Energy, in which he is a board member.

Notably, Bansal is already an investor in a fintech startup Sigtuple along with Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal, who resigned fro Flipkart this month.

[Top Image - TimesNowNews.com]

In Largest Personal Backing, Sachin Bansal May Invest $100 Mn in Ola

Flipkart co-founder, Sachin Bansal, post exiting the e-commerce firm is long being mulling to start his second innings as an investor. A couple of months back it was speculated that Sachin is planning to raise a venture capital fund of up to $1 billion for investing in startups. Now the latest coming in this is that Sachin may invest $100 million in homegrown cab hailing firm Ola in what would be called as biggest investment in personal capacity, reported Samidha Sharma and Madhav Chanchani of Economic Times.

Sachin Bansal's potential investment in Ola will be largely through subscription of new shares with a small component coming through a secondary sale by Ola's existing investors, said the report.

Sachin Bansal have had collected around $1 billion by selling his entire 5.5% stake in Flipkart to Walmart and if he invests what is being speculated then this $100 Mn investment will constitute more than 10% of this $1 billion he pocketed from Flipkart sale.

Notably, Bansal and Aggarwal are very close to each other comparing any other founders of Indian startup ecosystem. In this year's Time magazine's Most influential people's list when Bhavesh made it to the list SAchin Bansal had himself written Aggarwak's profile for the magazine.

Besides, the duo from different companies came together publicly to voice concerns over how domestic Internet startups did not have a level-playing field with deep-pocketed global giants such as Amazon and Uber, which directly compete with Flipkart and Ola.

In October last year, Ola had raised $1.1 billion from China’s Tencent and existing investor SoftBank and that time the ride-hailing had stated that it would raise another $1 billion. Eventually, in August this year, the company managed to raise only $50 million from Hong Kong-based Sailing Capital and the China-Eurasian Economic Cooperation Fund (CEECF). Ola, in this funding round, was valued at $4.2 billion.

Since 2014, Sachin Bansal has been proactively investing in startups with investment size of $1-2 million. He has invested in about seven ventures with a combined total funding of $26 million in various startups including electric two-wheeler firm Ather Energy; SigTuple, a health-tech firm; Unacademy and Tracxn, the largest data platform of Startups, among others.

If the Ola deal goes through then this will be Sachin's first investment after his exit from Flipkart.

In Largest Personal Backing, Sachin Bansal May Invest $100 Mn in Ola

Flipkart co-founder, Sachin Bansal, post exiting the e-commerce firm is long being mulling to start his second innings as an investor. A couple of months back it was speculated that Sachin is planning to raise a venture capital fund of up to $1 billion for investing in startups. Now the latest coming in this is that Sachin may invest $100 million in homegrown cab hailing firm Ola in what would be called as biggest investment in personal capacity, reported Samidha Sharma and Madhav Chanchani of Economic Times.

Sachin Bansal's potential investment in Ola will be largely through subscription of new shares with a small component coming through a secondary sale by Ola's existing investors, said the report.

Sachin Bansal have had collected around $1 billion by selling his entire 5.5% stake in Flipkart to Walmart and if he invests what is being speculated then this $100 Mn investment will constitute more than 10% of this $1 billion he pocketed from Flipkart sale.

Notably, Bansal and Aggarwal are very close to each other comparing any other founders of Indian startup ecosystem. In this year's Time magazine's Most influential people's list when Bhavesh made it to the list SAchin Bansal had himself written Aggarwak's profile for the magazine.

Besides, the duo from different companies came together publicly to voice concerns over how domestic Internet startups did not have a level-playing field with deep-pocketed global giants such as Amazon and Uber, which directly compete with Flipkart and Ola.

In October last year, Ola had raised $1.1 billion from China’s Tencent and existing investor SoftBank and that time the ride-hailing had stated that it would raise another $1 billion. Eventually, in August this year, the company managed to raise only $50 million from Hong Kong-based Sailing Capital and the China-Eurasian Economic Cooperation Fund (CEECF). Ola, in this funding round, was valued at $4.2 billion.

Since 2014, Sachin Bansal has been proactively investing in startups with investment size of $1-2 million. He has invested in about seven ventures with a combined total funding of $26 million in various startups including electric two-wheeler firm Ather Energy; SigTuple, a health-tech firm; Unacademy and Tracxn, the largest data platform of Startups, among others.

If the Ola deal goes through then this will be Sachin's first investment after his exit from Flipkart.

Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal Planning $1 Bn VC Fund and An AI Startup

Flipkart Co-founder and former chief executive officer, Sachin Bansal, is planning to raise a venture capital fund of $700 million-$1 billion for investing in startups, reported Live Mint, citing two people aware of this development.

Sachin, who sold his shares in Flipkart to Walmart for about US$1 billion (Rs 6,700 crore) and exit the company, is also considering investing and launching an artificial intelligence (AI) startup, said the report. HOwever, the rePort also said that Sachin has yet to take the final decision about his next venture, which could only get clearer by the end of this year.

According to people close to Sachin, he is eager to move on to his next venture and prove his entrepreneurial skill all over again by launching either a fund or an another startup.

In May, post acquisition of Flipkart by Walmart, Sachin on Facebook posted about his exit, saying, “Sadly my work here is done and after 10 years, it’s time to hand over the baton and move on from Flipkart.”

“But I’ll be watching and cheering from the outside—Flipsters, you better continue to do a good job! I’ll be taking some long time off and 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 said.

Sachin Bansal, along with Binny Bansal, co-founded Flipkart in 2007. While Sachin left, Binny Bansal continue to serve as the group CEO and thereafter appointed as the next Executive Chairman.

It may also be recalled that in January this year, both Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, have had quietly incorporated a new company called 'Sabin Advisors', which was reportedly for new businesses and could include venture capital funding and insurance. But then Walmart came in to the scene and imperialised everything and eventually it didn't took off as expected.

Meanwhile, in last month, Binny Bansal also revealed that Flipkart will now no longer invest in startups proactively as it used to do. The company will now however only invest in startups strategic to its business.

Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal Planning $1 Bn VC Fund and An AI Startup

Flipkart Co-founder and former chief executive officer, Sachin Bansal, is planning to raise a venture capital fund of $700 million-$1 billion for investing in startups, reported Live Mint, citing two people aware of this development.

Sachin, who sold his shares in Flipkart to Walmart for about US$1 billion (Rs 6,700 crore) and exit the company, is also considering investing and launching an artificial intelligence (AI) startup, said the report. HOwever, the rePort also said that Sachin has yet to take the final decision about his next venture, which could only get clearer by the end of this year.

According to people close to Sachin, he is eager to move on to his next venture and prove his entrepreneurial skill all over again by launching either a fund or an another startup.

In May, post acquisition of Flipkart by Walmart, Sachin on Facebook posted about his exit, saying, “Sadly my work here is done and after 10 years, it’s time to hand over the baton and move on from Flipkart.”

“But I’ll be watching and cheering from the outside—Flipsters, you better continue to do a good job! I’ll be taking some long time off and 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 said.

Sachin Bansal, along with Binny Bansal, co-founded Flipkart in 2007. While Sachin left, Binny Bansal continue to serve as the group CEO and thereafter appointed as the next Executive Chairman.

It may also be recalled that in January this year, both Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, have had quietly incorporated a new company called 'Sabin Advisors', which was reportedly for new businesses and could include venture capital funding and insurance. But then Walmart came in to the scene and imperialised everything and eventually it didn't took off as expected.

Meanwhile, in last month, Binny Bansal also revealed that Flipkart will now no longer invest in startups proactively as it used to do. The company will now however only invest in startups strategic to its business.

Flipkart Founders Quitely Incorporates A New Company 'SaBin Advisors'

Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, the two post boys founders of homegrown e-commerce giant Flipkart have quitely incorporated a new company last month for new businesses, which could include venture capital funding and insurance, reported The Hindu BusinessLine.

Named as Sabin Advisors, after the first few letters of both the co-founders Sachin and Binny, the company was incorporated on December 7 and lists out various businesses as its objective, including a foray into online ventures.

The exact form of business of the company is not known however it is expected that through Sabin Advisors the Bansals might route all their investments in startups and new online ventures that they both keep on doing.

Sachin Bansal has invested in seven ventures with a total funding of $26 million, while Binny Bansal has invested in 17, with a total funding of $32 million.

Notably, last year Flipkart got record $3 billion in two quick succession and from that point onwards the investors have taken a lead role in running the company and the founders are now looking at the other avenues for themselves via Sabin Advisors through which the aim to offer investment as well as advisory services outside the e-commerce platform.

Experts also believes that the formation of new company by Bansals is a natural progression as the VC firms who invested in Flipkart has taken nearly a complete control over the company and the co-founders will now play more of mentors role rather then managers like in earlier days of the company.

It is also expected that after Sabin Advisors incorporation the next step of the Bansals will most probably be making Flipkart go public.

Flipkart Founders Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal Named 'Asians of the Year' By Singapore's Strait Times

The year 2016 seems to be winding up on a good note for India's ecommerce giant Flipkart's famous founders- Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. After making it to Times Magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People in the world, the entrepreneurial geniuses have now been chosen for the extremely prestigious "2016 Asian of the Year" as part of a group called the "The Disruptors" by the Straits Times of Singapore.

The other names included in the 'disruptors' group are the founders of Tencent, Go-Jek, Razer and Grab.

According to a joint statement released by the two Flipkart founders in Bengaluru, the two have humbly accepted this honor bestowed upon them by the Straits Times of Singapore on behalf of all the Indians. The founders feel that their company's innovative steps over the years, each aimed at transforming commerce in India through technology, have truly disrupted the market and it makes them both really proud to be recognised for their efforts and achievements.

During the start of the year, Bansal and Binny made news for appearing on Time Magazine's much famous and appreciated list of 100 Most Influential People in the world for the year 2016.

It is interesting to note that in the previous years, the award has been awarded to India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the year 2014, and posthumously to Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founding father, in the year 2015.

The Asian of the Year 2016 awards aims to recognise and award entrepreneurs "operating at the frontiers of technology's interface with business", who have successfully been able to launch businesses that have disrupted the traditional business model and hugely benefited their end-consumers.

Unacademy Raises Additional $1M from Blume Ventures, Stanford Angels India and Marquee Angels

Unacademy, Indian free online learning platform, has raised additional $1 million in their second round of external investment. In April 2016, they raised their first round of funding worth $500k. The current investment round is being led by Blume Ventures, along with Stanford Angels India, WaterBridge Ventures, Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Kunal Shah, Sandeep Tandon, Ashish Tulsian, Tracxn Labs and most of their existing investors participating in the round.

Unacademy is India’s largest free online learning platform that allows educators to create courses using their app on various subjects, including exclusive content for various competitive exams. Their vision is to get the best minds of the country share their knowledge in an easily comprehendible form. More than 100 educators have created 200+ courses in the last eight months since the launch of their platform Unacademy.in. The platform attracts more than 1M video views monthly now, their growth so far has been mostly organic.

“What started as an experiment has today become one of the most reliable sources of online education. From content specific to competitive examinations to basic English learning techniques, we are in a process to make Unacademy the one-stop destination for online courses across myriad fields and subjects. From IAS topper 2016, Tina Dabi, to India’s first woman IPS officer, Kiran Bedi, we aim to get courses from only the best on our platform. Within two months, the Unacademy Create app will be made available to all, so anyone across the world can create lessons in any language they like. After a thorough screening process, we will make the relevant lessons available on our platform that will be free for all to see,” says Gaurav Munjal, Co-Founder and CEO, Unacademy.

In a span of eight months, over 300,000 students have benefited from over 2,400 online lessons and specialised courses on cracking various competitive examinations, on our platform. Our success stories include thousands of students who have cracked toughest of examinations, improved their ability to speak and write better and increase their knowledge. Some of our students have today become educators on Unacademy and that is what we call a true educational revolution. India is home to 19 per cent of the world’s youth and we are empowering them to take on the world in a manner that classrooms will never do. Our vision is to partner with the brightest minds and have courses on every possible topic in multiple languages so that the whole world can benefit from these courses.

Karthik Reddy,Managing Partner, Blume Ventures, says, “Unacademy presents a great example of the beginnings of an incredible shift in India’s Internet—the ability of millions of new internet users using smartphones as their only access device to create and consume high quality curated educational content as easily as laying hands on a textbook. And the product is designed for both lightweight production and consumption—in that it’s ingenious. This can change learning to an entirely different plane and kill a lot of ineffective institutional frameworks. And it’s an absolutely crack team of young founders for whom all else, including the IAS, didn’t compare to the ambitiou” goal and impact that an Unacademy can have. This is why we think tech can be such a game changer even in education in this country.”

Sachin Bansal, Executive Chairman, Flipkart, says, ”Education and learning from the best suited teachers and professionals is a global problem, which, I believe, Unacademy solves seamlessly with its interactive and intuitive content. In a short span of eight months, the founding team has proved that leveraging technology to empower its educators and students is a problem that can be solved effectively at scale. I am impressed by the ease with which educators can speedily upload videos and touch a billion lives with effective lessons. I am confident that the strong founding team of Unacademy is well positioned to truly disrupt traditional classroom teaching with more impactful content, and I am proud to back the venture.”

Kiran Bedi, Lt Governor, Puducherry, and also an educator at Unacademy, says, “ It took me ten minutes to make a video lesson on ’Time management and productivity’ on the Unacademy Create app, and impact a million lives with my learning. The overwhelming response from students, along with the simplicity with which the app has been designed, encourages working professionals to share their experience. It is an unconventional way for students to get the perspective of real life challenges and lessons and makes me believe everyone can be a teacher. I urge Unacademy to conduct lessons and workshops in Puducherry. Unacademy cuts across boundaries. It’s truly global and in one’s own hands.”

9 Richest Indian Tech Billionaires

While being rich might not have been a priority for them, but it is for sure an excellent byproduct of being super successful that these 9 Indian tech honchos are currently enjoying.

Forbes recently announced its annual list of World's Billionaires, which is a well-known guide to the richest people on planet Earth. The list which has seen Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates sitting comfortably at the numero uno position for several years now, saw 9 Indians making the cut this year.

Here are the Indians who made India shine on the Forbes World's Billionaires 2016 Annual list.

1) Azim Premji

Ranking on the list- 55
Net worth - $15 billion

The first Indian visible on the list. He is the man behind India's third-largest software exporter, Wipro. Premji Invest, his family office, has made strategic investment in some of the biggest companies like PolicyBazaar, Cyanogen, Snapdeal and Myntra, to name a few.

2) Shiv Nadar

Ranking on the list- 88

Net worth - $11.1 billion

Acquiring the 88th global position, the 2nd Indian on the list is Shiv Nadar, the founder and chairman of India's fourth-largest software services exporter, HCL. Nadar also doubles up as a philanthropist with his much famous Shiv Nadar Foundation.

3) NR Narayana Murthy

Ranking on the list- 959
Net worth - $1.9 billion

The 3rd Indian on the Forbes list is Narayana Murthy, the man who co-founded India's second-largest software services exporter, Infosys. He served as Infosys' CEO from the year 1981 to 2002 and as its chairman from the year 2002 to 2011. Apart from being the brains behind the conception of Infosys, Mr. Murthy has a private investment firm Catamaran Ventures, which has invested in companies like Coverfox, Hector Beverages, Innoviti and Yebhi etc. The firm has also launched a joint venture with e-commerce giant Amazon called Cloudtail, which has been acknowledged as the largest seller on Amazon India.

4) Kris Gopalakrishnan

Ranking on the list- 1121
Net worth - $1.6 billion

Following the footsteps of his Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy is, Kris Gopalakrishnan. The co-founder of Infosys served at the company as its chief executive for four years from the year 2007 to 2011. He has reportedly contributed a whopping amount of Rs 225 crore for the setting up of the Centre for Brain Research at the IISc in Bengaluru city.

5) Nandan Nilekani

Ranking on the list- 1121
Net worth - $1.6 billion

Another Infosys co-founder has made the cut. Nilekani who is currently the chairman of EkStep, was Infosys chief executive for five years from the year 2002 to 2007 and chairman of UIAI until March 2014. He's said to have backed companies like Juggernaut, Systemantics, Team Indus, Power2SME, Fortigo and Mubble, to name a few.

6) Binny Bansal

Ranking on the list- 1476
Net Worth- $1.2 billion

The sixth Indian making waves on the list is the co-founder of India's largest e-commerce company, Flipkart. Binny was recently appointed as Flipkart's chief executive in January this year after his co-founder Sachin Bansal gave up the position. As a CEO, he's overlooks all of the company's business areas and is responsible for taking care of its operations.

7) Sachin Bansal

Ranking on the list- 1476
Net Worth- $1.2 billion

Sachin Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart, India's largest e-commerce startup, gave up his role as the company's chief executive in January this year. Since then he's providing his services to the company as its executive chairman. Along with Binny Bansal, Sachin has made some major investments in startups with huge potential like InShorts, Ather Energy, Tinystep and Tracxn, to name a few.

8) K Dinesh

Ranking on the list- 1476
Net Worth- $1.2 billion

Another Infosys legend on the list, K Dinesh is the co-founder of the software company and was its board member from the year 1981 to 2011. In 2011, he decided to retire from Infosys as its head of quality, Information Systems and the Communication Design Group.

9) SD Shibulal

Ranking on the list- 1577
Net Worth- $1.1 billion

The last Indian on the list, Shibulal also owes his fortune to Infosys, India's second-largest software services exporter. A co-founder of the company, he worked as its chief executive for a period of three years from 2011 to 2014. Post that, he launched a startup incubator Axilor Ventures along with Kris Gopalakrishnan, another Infosys co-founder.

Sachin Bansal Steps Down As CEO of Flipkart, Co-Founder Binny Takes Over

Brace yourself, the first big, controversial startup news of the year 2016 is here! Sachin Bansal, the co-founder of Flipkart, which is the numero uno Indian ecommerce platform has resigned as the company's chief executive officer (CEO) and is all set to be replaced by Binny Bansal, the other co-founder.

According to a statement issued by the company on Monday, "Sachin Bansal, the CEO and co-founder of Flipkart, will be the executive chairman of the company and Binny Bansal, COO and co-founder of Flipkart, will be the chief executive officer of Flipkart."

Under his new role as an executive chairman, Sachin will look after providing strategic direction and mentor the senior leadership of the company.

Further, he will also be scouting for new investment opportunities for the ecommerce giant, champion Indian e-commerce sector and represent the firm in various external forums.

According to Sachin, in the next phase of its journey, Flipkart endeavours to play a significant role in improving the commerce scene in the country and prove to the world that India as a country is capable of producing a world class Internet company.

On the other hand, the new CEO will drive the company and have the accountability of its overall performance. Further, business areas like commerce, ekart and Myntra will now report to Binny, the new CEO. In addition to this, various other corporate functions like human resources, finance, legal, corporate communications and corporate development will also be under Binny.

Started 9 years ago in 2007, the company has a customer base of 50 million registered users and is currently valued at a whopping $15.2 billion.

The statement released by the company on Monday also added that Mukesh Bansal will continue to head Myntra, Flipkart's fashion subsidiary. Further, he will also look after the company's core business commerce platform along with its ads business.

Sachin Bansal Steps Down As CEO of Flipkart, Co-Founder Binny Takes Over

Brace yourself, the first big, controversial startup news of the year 2016 is here! Sachin Bansal, the co-founder of Flipkart, which is the numero uno Indian ecommerce platform has resigned as the company's chief executive officer (CEO) and is all set to be replaced by Binny Bansal, the other co-founder.

According to a statement issued by the company on Monday, "Sachin Bansal, the CEO and co-founder of Flipkart, will be the executive chairman of the company and Binny Bansal, COO and co-founder of Flipkart, will be the chief executive officer of Flipkart."

Under his new role as an executive chairman, Sachin will look after providing strategic direction and mentor the senior leadership of the company.

Further, he will also be scouting for new investment opportunities for the ecommerce giant, champion Indian e-commerce sector and represent the firm in various external forums.

According to Sachin, in the next phase of its journey, Flipkart endeavours to play a significant role in improving the commerce scene in the country and prove to the world that India as a country is capable of producing a world class Internet company.

On the other hand, the new CEO will drive the company and have the accountability of its overall performance. Further, business areas like commerce, ekart and Myntra will now report to Binny, the new CEO. In addition to this, various other corporate functions like human resources, finance, legal, corporate communications and corporate development will also be under Binny.

Started 9 years ago in 2007, the company has a customer base of 50 million registered users and is currently valued at a whopping $15.2 billion.

The statement released by the company on Monday also added that Mukesh Bansal will continue to head Myntra, Flipkart's fashion subsidiary. Further, he will also look after the company's core business commerce platform along with its ads business.

Sachin Bansal, Flipkart HR-Head Invest In Bangalore Startup SpoonJoy

Lately, Bangalore-based SpoonJoy, an online meal delivery startup got an undisclosed amount of funding from investors which includes Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal and Chief People Officer Mekin Maheshwari.

Other investor who participated in this round are - Abhishek Goyal, founder of Tracxn (which provides data on start-ups), and Sahil Barua, co-founder of e-commerce enablement services company Delhivery. Prashant Chandra, the former chief financial officer of UrbanTouch.com was also among the angel investors.

The funds raised would be used to further enhance the technology to optimize the supply chain and scale the operations and will also be utilized for making investments in growing the consumer base of the company, as SpoonJoy is looking at expansion across Bengaluru before it reaches out to other states.

Spoonjoy allows customers to order healthy meal packs on weekly subscription basis. The website gets around 350-400 orders per day, and cut fruits and sprouts are the most popular items bought by them. A majority of the orders that SpoonJoy get are from offices.

Spoonjoy was founded by Manish Jethani in April last year. Manish holds an Engineering degree from IIT Roorkee has worked with FashionandYou.com, UrbanTouch.com, Chakpak.com, TransBit Technologies in the past.

Manish is a second time entrepreneur, has so far funded the startup through is personal savings and borrowed money from friends and family. Prior to setting up SpoonJoy, Manish was part of the core team at UrbanTouch.