Sachin Bansal may set up $1 bn VC fund, front 40% capital from his pocket

His inauspicious exit from Flipkart came soon after Walmart agreed to buy 77% stake in the company for $16 billion

Flipkart co-founder and former chief executive Sachin Bansal could be mulling to set up a $700 million - $1 billion venture capital fund through which he will invest in startups, according to a Livemint report on Friday.

Bansal, who announced that he was parting ways with Flipkart in May, is expected to make a little more than $1 billion upon selling his entire 5.5 per cent stake. The Mint report cited people saying that Bansal could front up to 40 per cent of the capital for the VC fund from his own pocket.

Calls made by Business Standard to Sachin Bansal remained unanswered, while the Mint report stated that he had declined to comment.

His inauspicious exit from Flipkart came soon after Walmart agreed to buy 77 per cent stake in the company for $16 billion. While Bansal did not reveal any reason for stepping down, insiders say he was forced out due to a disagreement with the board over his role at the company post the Walmart investment.

The deal between Walmart and Flipkart isn’t closed just yet, with the two companies waiting on the green light from India’s competition regulator.

While Bansal’s next move is keenly anticipated, he has made no indication of what he plans to do so far. In a post on Facebook announcing his stepping down, he said that he was taking some much deserved time off and would brush up on his coding skills and indulge in some PC gaming (Bansal is known to be an avid gamer).

But even now, it seems that Bansal isn’t fully sold any one idea for the future. The Mint report says that he is also considering funding and running an artificial intelligence (AI) startup. He could take a decision on his next venture by the end of the year.

Apart from leading India’s largest Internet company from the front for over eight years, Bansal is also the poster child for startups in the country. Prior to selling out to Walmart, he has been an advocate for India to build its own multi-billion dollar Internet companies, and safeguard them from deep pocketed foreign competition.

"What we need to do is what China did and tell the world we need your capital, but we don't need your companies,” Sachin Bansal had famously said at an event in December 2016. That was a rough time for Flipkart, when Amazon was closing in and the company was struggling to raise funds at a valuation higher or equal to its previous round.

Bansal has already funded around seven startups (according to Crunchbase) in his personal capacity, including electric scooter maker Ather, edu-tech firm Unacademy and venture capital data network Tracxn.