Binny Bansal
Born1982 or 1983 (age 40–41)[1]
NationalityIndian
Alma materIIT Delhi
Occupations
  • Former Chairman & CEO, Flipkart
  • Founder (xto10x)
Known forCo-founding Flipkart [2]
SpouseTrisha Bansal
WebsiteFlipkart.com

Binny Bansal (born 1982/1983) is an Indian billionaire[2] Internet entrepreneur.[3]

In 2007 he co-founded the e-commerce platform Flipkart.[4][5]

He served as the chief operating officer until January 11, 2016, when he was promoted to chief executive officer (CEO).[6] In January 2017 he was promoted to Group CEO, then resigning in November 2018 due to personal misconduct allegations of Flipkart.[7]

He is currently an anchor investor in the venture firm 021 Capital.[8] In 2019, Bansal invested in the endowment fund of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.[9]

Early life and education

Binny Bansal was born around 1982/1983.[2] His father was a chief manager at a bank and his mother is in the government sector.[10]

Binny is from Chandigarh.[11] He is originally from Chandigarh, the capital city of Punjab and Haryana. He was educated at St. Anne's Convent School, Chandigarh.[12]

He studied software programming at IIT Delhi.[2] He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi with a degree in computer science and engineering.[11][13]

Career

Amazon

After college, he worked at Sarnoff Corporation, and then in January 2007 he joined Amazon as a software engineer.[2]

Early in his career, Binny was employed by Amazon for nine months, and before that he had been rejected by Google twice.[14] he quit Amazon to co-found Flipkart.[2]

Founding Flipkart

In 2007 he co-founded the e-commerce platform Flipkart.[4] His business partner, Sachin Bansal, unrelated, also came from Chandigarh,[15] and had been a fellow student at IIT Delhi,[2] studying computer science engineering.

He and his co-founder pooled $6000 for startup costs, and started operating out of their apartment.[8]

Before co-founding Flipkart, Binny Bansal and his business partner Sachin Bansal initially thought of starting a comparison search engine, but realized that the market for E-commerce in India was very small. Hence, after leaving Amazon in 2007, they founded Flipkart as an e-commerce company. Before joining Amazon, Binny had worked with Sarnoff Corporation for a year and a half,[16] where he developed a lane sensor device for cars which would warn you and beep automatically if you changed lanes without giving a signal.[citation needed]

CEO of Flipkart

He served as the chief operating officer until 11 January 2016, when he was promoted to chief executive officer (CEO).[6]

In 2016, Binny Bansal became the CEO of Flipkart, where he worked on strategic development, direction and business management.[6]

In 2017, he assumed the role of CEO of Flipkart Group and his previous position was handed to Kalyan Krishnamurthy.[17]

In 2018, Walmart acquired a 77% stake in Flipkart group. After the acquisition, Binny Bansal assumed the role of chairman and continued as Group CEO.[18] His 5.5% stake in Flipkart was valued at $1 billion after the acquisition.[19][20]

He resigned from Flipkart in November 2018 on allegations of personal misconduct.[21] According to the Wall Street Journal, a Walmart investigation failed to find evidence to corroborate sexual assault claims against him, but revealed "other poor judgement calls" in how he had handled what he termed a consensual affair with a former Flipkart employee in 2016.[22]

Investing

He is currently an anchor investor in the venture firm 021 Capital which focuses on investing in the fields of biotechnology, agritech, and the internet.[8]

He is also an angel investor in multiple startups, including BrightCHAMPS, Virgio, Flash, Hire Quotient and Glints.[23][24]

In 2019, he invested 125 crores in the endowment fund of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.[9]

He also helped back about 47 companies so far spread across 64 funding rounds which includes 28 deals in the seed stage, 14 in early and 4 in late-stage.[25]

Awards and recognition

In September 2015, Binny Bansal along with Sachin Bansal, was named the 86th richest person in India with a net worth of $1.3 billion by Forbes India Rich List.[26] Afterwards, India Today ranked him #26th along with Sachin Bansal in India's 50 Most powerful people of 2017 list.[27]

Personal life

Bansal currently resides in Bangalore.[10] He has twin sons with his wife Trisha Bansal,[28] a homemaker.[2][10]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Forbes profile: Binny Bansal (Resigned)". Forbes. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Verma, Mihir Dalal (13 January 2016). "Flipkart's other Bansal comes to the fore". Mint. LiveMint.
  3. ^ Srikar Muthyala (29 September 2015). "The List Great Entrepreneurs of India in 2015". MyBTechLife. Archived from the original on 14 January 2016.
  4. ^ a b Punj, Deepshikha (17 September 2011). "Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal proudly owns flipkart.com, the biggest online bookstore in India". India Today.
  5. ^ "Flipkart sales hit whopping $1 bn, Sachin and Binny Bansal 'run rate' stupendous". The Financial Express. 9 March 2014.
  6. ^ a b c "Flipkart flips CEO post, Binny Bansal replaces Sachin Bansal". Livemint. 12 January 2016.
  7. ^ "Kalyan Krishnamurthy to take over as Flipkart CEO, Binny Bansal Group CEO - FactorDaily". factordaily.com. 9 January 2017. Archived from the original on 10 January 2017. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  8. ^ a b c "Binny Bansal". Forbes.
  9. ^ a b "IIT दिल्ली को इन 2 पूर्व छात्रों ने दिए 125 करोड़, करते हैं ये बिजनेस". आज तक (in Hindi). 31 October 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  10. ^ a b c Mookerji, Nivedita (5 August 2014). "flipkart ceo wanted to be a gamer snapdeal chief a food and film critic". Business Standard India. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  11. ^ a b "Flipkart success story revealed! Meet Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal". dailybhaskar. 9 December 2013.
  12. ^ "St. AnneS CONVENT SCHOOL,". sacschd.in.
  13. ^ "What Flipkart's Funds Mean for its Rivals". Forbes India. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  14. ^ "Before I got into Amazon, Google rejected me twice. But that did not stop me from starting Flipkart: Binny Bansal". Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  15. ^ "Binny Bansal". Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  16. ^ "Flipkart success story revealed! Meet Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal". Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  17. ^ "Flipkart appoints Kalyan Krishnamurthy as new CEO". The Hindu. 9 January 2017.
  18. ^ "Walmart acquires Flipkart for $16 billion in world's largest ecommerce deal". Economic Times. 10 May 2018.
  19. ^ "Is Binny Bansal saying bye to Flipkart in the Walmart sellout?". Factor Daily. 26 April 2018. Archived from the original on 17 August 2023. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  20. ^ "Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal's Flipkart journey: From Kart to Mart". The New Indian Express. 10 May 2018.
  21. ^ "Flipkart and Walmart statement on Binny Bansal". news.walmart.com. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  22. ^ Purnell, Newley; Nassauer, Sarah (13 November 2018). "Walmart's Flipkart CEO Steps Down in Wake of Misconduct Allegation". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  23. ^ "One-year-old edtech startup BrightChamps is now valued at half a billion, after $63 million round led by Premji Invests and Flipkart's Binny Bansal". Business Insider. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
  24. ^ "Ritesh Agarwal, Sachin Bansal, And Other Entrepreneurs Who Turned Angel Investors - Wearing Two Hats". The Economic Times. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  25. ^ "Binny Bansal: India's prolific startup investor". Fortuneindia. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  26. ^ "Forbes India rich list: Mukesh Ambani tops for 9th year, Flipkart's Bansals debut at 86th slot". Firstpost. 24 September 2015. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  27. ^ "India's 50 powerful people". India Today. 14 April 2017.
  28. ^ Karmali, Naazneen. "E-Commerce Entrepreneur Seeks To Mentor And Invest In Startups From Singapore". Forbes. Retrieved 6 January 2023.

External links

Flipkart
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