The BigB of India's startup ecosystem is back. Sachin Bansal registers new company
Sachin Bansal, along with former investment banker Ankit Agarwal, has registered a non-government private company - BAC Acquisitions Private Limited on December 10, according to data from the Registrar of Companies (RoC). While the nature of its business is unclear, BAC Acquisitions appears to be a holding company.
After Walmart acquired Flipkart for $16 billion earlier this year, making it the first successful exit for a startup unicorn, Sachin, the company's Co-founder and the then Executive Chairman, left Flipkart after selling his 5.5 percent stake for a reported $800 million-$1 billion. Since then, reports surfaced that Sachin was allegedly forced to leave Flipkart following a disagreement over his role post the acquisition.
[Also read: YS Exclusive - Straight talk with Flipkart’s Kalyan Krishnamurthy, the Indian CEO the world is watching]
In November, just a few months after Sachin's departure, Co-founder Binny Bansal too exited Flipkart on account of 'personal misconduct'. The back-to-back exits of the two people who had built Flipkart created ripples in Indian the startup ecosystem.
For over a decade, Flipkart was considered the flag-bearer of the Indian startup ecosystem. The founder duo, Sachin and Binny, had inspired scores of entrepreneurs with the growth of the company, which started life as an online bookseller. As we wrote earlier, in many ways, the evolution of Flipkart shaped the narrative of the country's startup ecosystem and cemented India’s standing as a major market of interest for investors. The co-founders were always known for working in unison, with Sachin been regarded as the visionary among the two, while Binny was seen as the “operations guy”.
Theirs was a story of two twenty-something boys from Chandigarh, who scripted one of the biggest success stories of the Indian startup ecosystem. They forced global players to turn their attention to India – in particular, the immense growth opportunities and possibilities in the market.
Now that Sachin is possibly back in the scene again, it will be interesting to see how his new venture might pan out.