Binny Bansal sells Flipkart shares to Tiger Global, nets $14 mn: Report

Binny Bansal has sold shares worth $14 million in Flipkart, the company he co-founded over a decade ago, to US-based investment firm Tiger Global Management, Mint reported.

Bansal sold 102,355 shares in the company to two Tiger Global funds - Internet Fund III Pte Ltd (47,759), an existing shareholder in Flipkart and Tiger Global Eight Holdings (54,596), a new shareholder entity, the report said, citing regulatory filings sourced from business intelligence platform Paper.vc. 

If the moderate increase in Flipkart’s valuation resulting from the growth of its payments subsidiary PhonePe had to be factored in, the deal value could go up to as much as $25 million, the report said.

In June, Bansal had sold 539,912 shares for $76.4 million, which reduced his holding from 3.85% to 3.52%. 

Earlier, he had sold a small portion of his minority holding while keeping a 3.85% stake when Walmart bought a controlling stake in Flipkart last year.

Bansal had resigned as group chief executive officer last November following an independent probe into allegations of “serious personal misconduct”.

He had been appointed group CEO in January 2017. Binny Bansal had co-founded Flipkart with his Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi batchmate Sachin Bansal in 2007.

Since his departure from Flipkart, Binny has been one of the most active angel investors in India. His investments include digital insurance startup Acko, smart electric scooter maker Ather Energy, House of Masaba, the luxury fashion label launched by celebrated designer Masaba Gupta, healthcare-focussed additive manufacturing startup Supercraft3D, supply-chain tech startup Increff and online premium fashion platform Purple Style Labs. 

He has also invested in Mumbai-based venture debt firm Alteria Capital’s maiden fund and is also an investor in 021 Capital, a venture fund launched by Sailesh Tulshan, the personal investment adviser to both Binny and Sachin Bansal.

Bansal teamed up with his former colleague Saikiran Krishnamurthy to launch xto10x Technologies, a startup consultancy which aims to offer tech tools and a learning platform for startups to help them scale up rapidly.