Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal steps down from Ujjivan Small Fin Bank board

Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has stepped down as an independent director from the board of microfinance lender Ujjivan Small Finance Bank.

Bansal’s resignation from the board of directors of the bank is effective from January 27, the lender said in a regulatory filing.

The move comes shortly after Bansal applied for a universal banking licence for Navi Technologies-owned microfinance lender Chaitanya India Fin Credit. The firm provides small business loans, personal loans, education loans and two-wheeler loans in the last mile areas, and has operations in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Following his departure from Flipkart, Bansal has been focusing his investments in the fintech sector. Navi Technologies, Bansal’s investment vehicle co-owned by IIT Delhi batchmate Ankit Agarwal, had earlier acquired majority stake in Chaitanya India Fin Credit.

“Given an entity owned and controlled by me has made an application to the RBI for a universal banking license, I felt it was — in the interest of propriety and corporate governance — only appropriate that I stepped down from this role,” Bansal said in a letter to the bank.

In January, global investment entity IFC (International Finance Corporation) evinced interest in acquiring a small stake in the entity. The investment will allow the company to build mass market products for MSMEs (micro small medium enterprise) in India. 

In November last year, Bansal infused over $123 million in Navi Technologies. It has invested in 18 startups, 11 of which are from the financial services sector. In the following month, Navi Technologies acquired Bengaluru-based technology consultancy Mavenhive to improve product offerings of its investee startups.