Binny Bansal (born 1982/1983) is an Indian billionaire Internet entrepreneur. As of February 2024, his net worth was estimated at US$1.4 billion. In 2007 he co-founded the

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

platform

Flipkart Flipkart Inc. is an Indian e-commerce company, headquartered in Bangalore, and incorporated in Singapore as a private limited company. The company initially focused on online book sales before expanding into other product categories such as con ...

. He was the

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

until January 2016, when he was promoted to chief executive officer (CEO). In January 2017 he was promoted to group CEO, then resigned in November 2018 due to personal misconduct allegations of Flipkart. He is an anchor investor in the venture firm 021 Capital. In 2019, Bansal invested in the endowment fund of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.

Early life

Binny Bansal was born around 1982/1983. His father was a chief manager at a bank and his mother is in the government sector. He is originally from

Chandigarh Chandigarh is a city and union territory in northern India, serving as the shared capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana. Situated near the foothills of the Shivalik range of Himalayas, it borders Haryana to the east and Punjab in the ...

, the capital city of

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

and

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

. He was educated at St. Anne's Convent School, Chandigarh. He studied software programming at IIT Delhi. He graduated from the

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT- Delhi) is a Public university, public institute of technology located in Delhi, India. It is one of the 23 Indian Institutes of Technology created to be a Centre of Excellence for India's training, res ...

with a degree in

computer science and engineering Computer science and engineering (CSE) is an academic subject comprising approaches of computer science and computer engineering. There is no clear division in computing between science and engineering, just like in the field of materials science ...

Career

Amazon

After college, he worked at Sarnoff Corporation, and then in January 2007 he joined

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

as a software engineer. Early in his career, Binny was employed by

for nine months, and before that, he had been rejected by

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

twice. he quit Amazon to co-found

Founding Flipkart

In 2007 he co-founded the

platform

. His business partner, Sachin Bansal, unrelated, also came from Chandigarh, and had been a fellow student at IIT Delhi, studying computer science engineering. He and his co-founder pooled $6000 for startup costs and started operating out of their apartment. Before co-founding

, Binny Bansal and his business partner Sachin Bansal initially thought of starting a comparison search engine but realized that the market for E-commerce in India was very small. Hence, after leaving Amazon in 2007, they founded Flipkart as an e-commerce company. Before joining Amazon, Binny had worked with Sarnoff Corporation for a year and a half, where he developed a lane sensor device for cars which would warn you and beep automatically if you changed lanes without giving a signal.

CEO of Flipkart

He served as the

until 11 January 2016, when he was promoted to chief executive officer (CEO). In 2016, Binny Bansal became the CEO of

, where he worked on strategic development, direction and business management. In 2017, he assumed the role of CEO of Flipkart Group and his previous position was handed to Kalyan Krishnamurthy. In 2018,

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

acquired a 77% stake in the Flipkart Group. After the acquisition, Binny Bansal assumed the role of chairman and continued as Group CEO. His 5.5% stake in Flipkart was valued at $1 billion after the acquisition. He resigned from Flipkart in November 2018 on allegations of personal misconduct. According to the ''Wall Street Journal,'' a Walmart investigation failed to find evidence to corroborate sexual assault claims against him but revealed "other poor judgement calls" in how he had handled what he termed a consensual affair with a former Flipkart employee in 2016. Binny Bansal resigned from the executive team on 28 January 2024, and has completely divested his stake. In the last year, Binny, along with Excel and Tiger Global Management, sold their entire stake to

, resulting in Binny earning $1.5 billion. Walmart acquired a 77% stake in Flipkart for $16 billion in May 2018.

Investing

He is currently an anchor investor in the venture firm 021 Capital which focuses on investing in the fields of

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

, agritech, and the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. He is also an angel investor in multiple startups, including BrightCHAMPS, Virgio, Flash, Hire Quotient and Glints. In 2019, he invested 125 crores in the endowment fund of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. He also helped back about 47 companies so far spread across 64 funding rounds which include 28 deals in the seed stage, 14 in the early and 4 in late stage.

Awards and recognition

In September 2015, Binny Bansal along with Sachin Bansal, was named the 86th richest person in India with a net worth of $1.3 billion by

Forbes India ''Forbes India'' is the Indian edition of ''Forbes'', which is managed by the Reliance Industries-owned media conglomerate, Network 18. History and profile Since its founding in 2008, ''Forbes India'' has achieved a circulation of 50,000 copies ...

Rich List. Afterwards, ''

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media, Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' laun ...

'' ranked him #26th along with Sachin Bansal in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

's 50 Most powerful people of 2017 list.

Personal life

Bansal currently resides in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

. He has twin sons with his wife Trisha Bansal, a homemaker.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bansal, Binny Living people Businesspeople from Chandigarh Indian software engineers 20th-century Indian businesspeople Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) IIT Delhi alumni Indian chief operating officers Amazon (company) people Indian billionaires Flipkart people Indian Internet company founders Indian technology chief executives Indian technology company founders Indian online retailer founders St. Anne's Convent School, Chandigarh alumni 1980s births