Now helping founders: Post-Flipkart, Binny Bansal heavy on Indian start-ups

In past 6 years, Bansal has invested in close to 40 entities, both as angel investor and through his VC fund

Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal has stayed bullish on Indian start-ups. In the past six years, he had invested in close to 40 entities, both as an angel investor and through his venture capital (VC) fund, ‘021 Capital’.

In November last year, he quit as chief executive at Flipkart, the e-commerce platform in which Walmart now has majority stake. Sources in the know say Bansal’s engagement with his investee companies has increased in recent months, with active mentoring of many of the latter’s founders. His LinkedIn profile tag line also reads ‘now helping founders’.

Bansal’s journey as angel investor started in 2013, when very much at the helm of Flipkart. His investments through 021 Capital began last year; the entity itself was launched in 2017 by Sailesh Tulshan, who was personal investment adviser to Binny Bansal. Currently, the Flipkart co-founder is the biggest investor in the VC fund, apart from being an advisor. 

So far, the fund has infused capital in six entities, including in biotech start-up Pandorum Technologies, and in Ycook, which makes ready-to-cook food. Late last month, the early-stage investment fund put money into legal technology entity SpotDraft.

This January, 021 Capital raised $32 million (around Rs 220 crore), with Bansal participating as anchor investor and also getting limited partners (LPs) such as the Azim Premji Foundation. Some of the other prominent LPs were Myntra and Curefit co-founder Mukesh Bansal, MakeMyTrip India chief executive Rajesh Magow, PhonePe’s Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari. 

Apart from investing through his VC fund, Bansal has infused seed capital into 32 entities as angel investor. From start-ups Giveter, Tracxn and Zopper in 2013, he recently took exposure in Bengaluru-based robotics start-up Nymble Labs and in a learning platform for software developers, Crio.Do. Others he’s invested in include CureFit, Grey Orange Robotics, Ather Energy, InShorts and NIRAMAI. 

“Entrepreneurship is like an addiction. After having tasted the highs, it's very difficult to stay off it. So, people tend to gravitate towards it, be it starting a company as serial entrepreneur or starting or joining a VC fund that works with start-ups,” K Ganesh, a serial entrepreneur and partner at GrowthStory, told Business Standard. 

India has a vibrant start-up system but lacks risk capital to bet on new ideas. Unlike China, a large chunk of capital flow to start-ups here is coming from foreign shores. This is slowly changing, with many successful entrepreneurs and professionals backing VC funds by becoming LPs. There is also a substantial rise in numbers of angel investors taking exposure to these companies. 

“Capital does not have any colour but rupee capital is important; unlike foreign capital, it will not fluctuate and will have a steady run,” says V Balakrishnan, former Infosys board member and chairman of Exfinity Venture Partners.

Some experts said Binny Bansal's current engagement with start-ups might be a precursor to his next venture. “Entrepreneurs can’t stop at creating new things and when someone like him invests in a company, it means a lot for that start-up. Persons with his network and reputation can open many doors for it,” said Navin K Rungta, co-founder of eLagaan, a company that helps start-ups on various compliance and fund raising matters.  

Rungta feels Bansal might also be preparing for another shot as entrepreneur. Many see Bansal’s launch of xto10x Technologies with former Ekart head Saikiran Krishnamurthy this January as a move in that direction. The venture aims at offering tech tools and a learning platform for start-ups all over the world to scale up.