Kunal Bahl (born c. 1984) is an Indian entrepreneur and investor who co-founded Snapdeal with his school friend Rohit Bansal in 2010. Snapdeal began as a daily-deals site and became one of India’s three largest online marketplaces by the mid-2010s, before a costly battle with Flipkart and Amazon forced it to shrink. Bahl rebuilt it as a smaller business aimed at value-conscious shoppers, and through Titan Capital he and Bansal have become two of India’s most prolific early-stage investors.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Kunal Bahl |
| Born | c. 1984, New Delhi, India |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, investor |
| Known for | Co-founder of Snapdeal and Titan Capital |
| Education | Delhi Public School, R. K. Puram; University of Pennsylvania (engineering and Wharton business degrees) |
| Spouse | Yashna Bahl |
| Children | 2 |
Early Life
Bahl grew up in Delhi and went to Delhi Public School, R. K. Puram, where he met Rohit Bansal. He studied in the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania, earning degrees in engineering and from the Wharton School, and started a detergent company while a student. He worked briefly at Microsoft in the United States but could not get a work visa and returned to India in 2007.
Career
Bahl and Bansal first ran a coupon-booklet business called MoneySaver. In February 2010 they launched Snapdeal as an online daily-deals platform, and in 2011 turned it into a marketplace connecting small sellers with buyers across India. Investors included eBay, SoftBank, Alibaba and Foxconn, and Ratan Tata put in his own money. By 2016 the company was valued at about $6.5 billion and had bought the payments firm FreeCharge, founded by Kunal Shah.
Heavy discounting drained its cash. In 2017 SoftBank pushed for a sale to Flipkart for less than $1 billion. Bahl and Bansal called off the talks in July 2017, sold FreeCharge to Axis Bank and the logistics arm Vulcan, cut most of the staff and relaunched Snapdeal as a lean marketplace for low-priced goods, a plan they called “Snapdeal 2.0”. The company returned to operating break-even.
The group, now called AceVector, also owns Unicommerce, an e-commerce software company that listed on the stock exchanges in August 2024, and the brands business Stellaro. Titan Capital, the founders’ investment firm, has backed more than 200 start-ups, among them Ola, Razorpay, Mamaearth and Urban Company.
Personal Life
Bahl is married to Yashna, and they have two children. He was chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s national e-commerce committee and joined Shark Tank India as a judge in its fourth season.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Kunal Bahl born?
Birth details: c. 1984, New Delhi, India.
What is Kunal Bahl known for?
Known for: Co-founder of Snapdeal and Titan Capital.
Featured image: Kunal Bahl speaks at the signing of an agreement between Snapdeal and the State Bank of India, Kolkata, 21 May 2015. Photo by Biswarup Ganguly, licensed under CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
