Binny Bansal, Flipkart's 'execution man', who delivered and kept low

Binny Bansal is one of the most high profile of India's new generation of young, tech-savvy billionaires.

Binny Bansal, who on Tuesday resigned as Flipkart's group chief executive officer after allegations of “serious personal misconduct”, was regarded as the “operations guy” and “the executioner” at the e-commerce firm.

Binny and his friend Sachin Bansal started Flipkart from a small flat in Koramangala, Bengaluru's IT hub, delivering books to customers who had ordered online. It is said that in the initial days the two would take turns to deliver the consignments to customers on a scooter.

Sachin dreamed up the big ideas, Binny executed them. Binny’s prowess is said to have been the driving force behind company scaling up.

Binny, who was the chief operating officer of Flipkart till 2015, built the company’s logistics network and a well-oiled supply chain, regarded as the backbone of an e-commerce enterprise. He created E-Kart, Flipkart’s captive delivery arm in 2010 and grew it to its current scale.

Binny and Sachin, in the years after 2010, became the poster boys of Indian startup ecosystem, as Flipkart brought on board marquee investors, all the way from Accel Partners and SAIF Partners to global biggies like Tiger Global Management and sovereign funds from Singapore and Qatar. 

Flipkart has become the largest privately-owned venture backed company to come out of India. 

When Walmart acquired majority stake in the company in May 2018, Flipkart was ascribed a valuation of over $20 billion. Walmart’s cheque of $16 billion for a 77% stake was the biggest e-commerce acquisition anywhere in the world.

Binny in January 2016 took over as CEO from Sachin, who was forced to step down from the position after Flipkart’s growth hit a bump.

However, only a year later, Binny was pushed out to make way for Kalyan Krishnamurthy, a Tiger Global executive, to help Flipkart compete with Amazon. Binny, like his partner Sachin, was sidelined and had no say in the day-to-day running of the company.

The two men clawed their way back into overseeing the running of Flipkart and they played an important role in discussions leading up to the Walmart investment. However, when it came to having just one co-founder on Flipkart's board post the Walmart deal, things quickly went sour between the two Bansals.

Binny is said to have held more favour with investors, especially Tiger Global, who pushed for him to be on the board of the Walmart majority-owned entity. Binny, unlike Sachin, will continue to hold his position on the Flipkart board and will continue to be a shareholder in the company.

“Since co-founding Flipkart with modest resources in 2007, the journey we have embarked on together has been arduous and rewarding, culminating with the fantastic news of our partnership with Walmart earlier this year. They have been great partners and I am optimistic about our future together,” said Binny in an email to Flipkart employees in which he announced his departure and which Business Standard has seen.