Sachin Bansal (born 5 August 1981) is an Indian entrepreneur who co-founded Flipkart with Binny Bansal in 2007. Starting as an online bookshop run from a flat in Bengaluru, Flipkart became India’s largest e-commerce company and showed that a large technology business could be built in India. Sachin left when Walmart bought control of the company in 2018, and he now runs Navi, which offers loans, insurance and mutual funds through an app.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Sachin Bansal |
| Born | 5 August 1981, Chandigarh, India |
| Age | 45 |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Known for | Co-founder of Flipkart; founder of Navi |
| Education | St. Anne’s Convent School, Chandigarh; IIT Delhi (B.Tech. Computer Science, 2005) |
| Children | 1 |
Early Life
Bansal grew up in Chandigarh, where his father was a businessman. A keen gamer, he studied computer science at IIT Delhi, where he met Binny Bansal. The two share a surname and a home town but are not related. After graduating he worked at Techspan and joined Amazon’s development centre in Bengaluru in 2006.
Flipkart
In October 2007 Sachin and Binny left Amazon and started Flipkart with about ₹4 lakh of their own savings. They packed and delivered the first books themselves, and Sachin handled the technology and search marketing. The first order was for the book Leaving Microsoft to Change the World.
Flipkart introduced cash on delivery in 2010, which won over customers who did not have or did not trust credit cards, and built its own delivery arm, Ekart. It moved into electronics and phones, bought the fashion sites Myntra and Jabong, and launched the annual “Big Billion Days” sale in 2014. Investors including Tiger Global, Naspers and SoftBank put in billions of dollars. Sachin was chief executive until January 2016 and then executive chairman.
In May 2018 Walmart agreed to pay about $16 billion for 77 per cent of Flipkart, the largest e-commerce acquisition in the world at the time. Sachin sold his entire stake of about 5.5 per cent for roughly $1 billion and left the company.
Navi
In December 2018 he founded Navi Technologies with Ankit Agarwal, investing a large part of his Flipkart money. Navi bought a microfinance lender and a general insurer and offers personal and home loans, health insurance and low-cost index funds. Its application for a universal banking licence was turned down by the Reserve Bank of India in 2022. He has also invested in Ola and in electric scooter and other start-ups.
Personal Life
Bansal married Priya, a dentist, and they have a son. He lives in Bengaluru.
Awards and Honours
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Sachin Bansal born?
Sachin Bansal was born on 5 August 1981 in Chandigarh, India and is 45 years old.
What is Sachin Bansal known for?
Known for: Co-founder of Flipkart; founder of Navi.
Featured image: Sachin Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart and founder of Navi, September 2021. Photo by Shahanadg, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
