Flipkart’s Bansals lose billionaire status

Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, co-founders of India’s most valuable Internet firm Flipkart, lost their billionaire status after Flipkart’s valuation fell in its latest funding round.

Their fortunes are now worth $650-750 million each after the e-commerce firm’s valuation reduced to $11.6 billion in its funding round of $1.4 billion announced on Monday, according to Mint research.

The Bansals became the first Internet billionaires in 2015 when Flipkart raised $700 million at a valuation of $15 billion. Their fortunes were then estimated to be worth roughly $1.3 billion each, according to Forbes magazine.

While that is a fall, they are still among the top three richest Internet entrepreneurs, behind Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who is the only Internet billionaire currently.

Sachin and Binny, who are in their mid-30s, started Flipkart in a two-bedroom apartment in Bengaluru as an online bookseller inspired by their previous employer Amazon, the giant American online retailer that is Flipkart’s arch rival now.

The two are now out of operational roles at Flipkart.

Sachin became executive chairman in January 2016, when Binny replaced him as chief executive officer. Exactly a year later, Binny himself was replaced as CEO by Kalyan Krishnamurthy, a representative of Tiger Global Management, Flipkart’s largest investor.

Binny is now group chief executive officer.