Sachin Bansal infuses Rs 888 crore into Navi Technologies
Navi Technologies is the investment arm founded by Flipkart Co-founder Sachin Bansal, which has a focus on the financial services space.
Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has made a fresh fund infusion of Rs 888.5 crore into his investment arm Navi Technologies.
According to regulatory filings, Sachin was allotted 6,83,45,451 shares in Navi Technologies at a price of Rs 130, which includes Rs 30 as premium. Navi Technologies was earlier known as BAC Acquisitions.
Flipkart Co-founder Sachin Bansal
In the break-up of the shares allotted, around Rs 150 crore was cash consideration while the rest were issued against receipt of financial securities. These financial securities were primarily listed and unlisted interest bearing non-convertible debentures which were received by Navi Technologies.
Following his departure from Flipkart last year, Sachin Bansal founded Navi in December 2018, along with Ankit Agarwal.
Recently, Navi had acquired a majority stake in Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services (CRIDS), a company which runs the micro-finance institution Chaitanya India Fin Credit (CIFCPL). Bansal has invested Rs 739 crore in CRIDS. Following the transaction, he became the new CEO of CRIDS.
This Bengaluru-based micro-lender, CRIDS was founded by Anand Rao and Samit Shetty. It provides access to credit for the underbanked population, and offers loans for two-wheelers, housing, small business and education. CRIDS has operations in five states — Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh.
Besides CRIDS, Navi has also got the green channel approval for the proposed acquisition of Essel Finance Asset Management Company and Essel Mutual Fund from Competition Commission of India (CCI). Subject to final approval by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), these will also be part of the group.
Sachin has also invested in U Gro Capital, a non-bank lender, by issuing non-convertible debentures. He has also made a debt investment of Rs 50 crore in consumer lending startup Kissht.
These investments provide him with a strong foothold in the financial services space where technology-led innovation is expected to be the key differentiator.
Sachin has been making investments in various startups such as Ola, Bounce, KrazyBee to name a few.
(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)
