SACHIN BANSAL INVESTS ~888 CR IN NAVI TECHNOLOGIES
Since exiting Flipkart last yr, he has invested in start-ups privately and through his investment vehicle BAC Acquisitions
Billionaire entrepreneur Sachin Bansal has infused more money into his investment vehicle BAC Acquisitions and renamed it Navi Technologies, company filings reveal.
The Flipkart co-founder has invested ~888.50 crore, approximately $123 million, in Navi Technologies, which was set up as BAC Acquisitions in December 2018.
Documents from the Registrar of Companies sourced through Tofler show Bansal bought 68.3 million shares at ~130 apiece over two tranches in October. Of these, 11.5 million shares were bought with cash (approximately ~150 crore), which comes as fresh infusion in the company. The rest were issued against financial securities, according to the documents.
“The funds have been infused in Navi Technologies to enable the company to scout for growth opportunities, organic and inorganic, in the broad financial sector space. With funds in the balance sheet, Navi Technologies will be able to move quickly to capture opportunities as they arise,” said a spokesperson of Sachin Bansal, in an emailed response.
The development comes close on the heels of Bansal buying a microfinance firm, which he now leads. In September, he announced his second innings as an entrepreneur by buying majority shares in Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services, which runs the microfinance institution, Chaitanya India Fin Credit. The company is 10 years old and headquartered in Bengaluru.
Bansal invested $104 million for over 90 per cent ownership in Chaitanya India, which caters to lowincome borrowers for vehicle finance, housing loans, small business loans, and education loans. He is now its chief executive officer.
After exiting Flipkart in May 2018, Bansal has been an active investor in the start-up ecosystem. He set up BAC Acquisitions with his Indian Institute of Technology-delhi (IIT-D) batchmate Ankit Agarwal to invest in start-ups through a mix of equity and debt. Company filings show Navi Technologies has three directors: Sachin Bansal, Ankit Agarwal, and Shubham Shrivastava.
Through BAC (now Navi Technologies), he made debt investments in a variety of ventures like Vogo, Bounce, and Kissht, and financing firms Altica Capital and Indostar Capital Finance. His biggest bet is Ola, where he committed to invest $100 million in January.
A source said the equity investment is around $25 million, while the rest is structured debt. Ather Energy, the electric scooter start-up, is another substantial investment where he has put in close to $35 million. He has over a dozen angel investments from his time at Flipkart and beyond.
Bansal, along with Flipkart’s other co-founder Binny Bansal, is also an investor in a recently announced endowment fund of IIT-D. The two have committed 50 per cent of ~250 crore, which is the size of the fund.
This will enable the firm to scout for growth opportunities in the broad financial sector space, said a spokesperson of Sachin Bansal