Binny Bansal plans new VC fund of $300-400 million
The new VC fund is likely to provide growth-stage capital to startups and it will look at companies outside of India and the South East Asia region.
Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal is stepping up his investment activity with plans to launch a new venture capital (VC) fund focused on startups with a size of around $300-400 million.
The VC fund will focus on the capital requirement for startups in India and South East Asia region, and will be operational by the end of 2019 .
Binny Bansal has been an active investor in the startup ecosystem in an individual capacity and is also launching a mentoring set up known as xto10x Technologies.
Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal
Binny Bansal may contribute about 20 percent in the new fund, and is looking to rope in other investors such as Fund of Funds and family offices, Times of India reported. This is the first time that the Flipkart co-founder will be expanding his horizons beyond India.
Bansal stepped down from his role as Group CEO of Flipkart in November last year following its acquisition by Walmart in a $16 billion deal. His stake in Flipkart is reportedly valued at around $1 billion and had recently sold some part of his holdings.
Successful startup entrepreneurs have been investing back into the ecosystem which includes Sachin Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart, who has invested close to $100 million in ride-hailing service provider Ola and has been providing venture debt.
While others like Mukesh Bansal, founder of Myntra and Kunal Shah, founder of Freecharge and now Cred have been starting new ventures.
Binny Bansal during his tenure at Flipkart had started investing in a variety of startups as an angel investor and backed 25 firms, which includes Acko General Insurance, Spotdraft, Niramai, Sigtuple to name a few.
In the period between January and March this year, Binny emerged as the most active angel investor having made five investments. In the year 2015, he had made five investments and followed up with six in 2016, three in 2017 and seven in 2018.
(Edited by Suman Singh)
