Sachin Bansal puts Rs 888 crore in investment vehicle, renames it Navi Tech

Mr. Sachin Bansal, the co-founder of Flipkart, invested around Rs 888.50 crore (US$ 123 million) in Navi Technologies, which was set up as BAC Acquisitions in December 2018. The details were revealed by the company filings.

The documents from the Registrar of Companies sourced through Tofler revealed that Mr. Bansal bought 68.3 million shares at Rs 130 apiece over two tranches in October where 11.5 million shares were bought with cash (approximately Rs 150 crore (US$ 21.46 million)), which comes as fresh investment 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 Mr. Sachin Bansal.

This comes after Mr. Bansal leading a microfinance which he bought earlier. 

In September, he announced his second innings as an entrepreneur by purchasing 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.

Mr. Bansal has invested US$ 104 million for over 90 per cent ownership in Chaitanya India, the company which provide loans to low-income borrowers for vehicle finance, housing loans, small business loans, and education loans. Mr. Bansal holds the position of chief executive officer.

Mr. Bansal has been an active investor in the start-up ecosystem even after exiting Flipkart in May 2018.

He along with his Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) batchmate Ankit Agarwal set up BAC Acquisitions, with aim to invest in start-ups through a mix of equity and debt. According to the company filings of Navi Technologies there are three directors: Sachin Bansal, Ankit Agarwal, and Shubham Shrivastava.

The debt investment in various ventures like Vogo, Bounce, and Kissht, and financing firms Altica Capital and Indostar Capital Finance were made through BAC (now Navi Technologies). The biggest bet is Ola, where an investment of US$ 100 million was committed in January.

The equity investment made is around US$ 25 million, whereas the rest is structured debt. Ather Energy, the electric scooter start-up, is another substantial investment where he has invested around US$ 35 million. There are over a dozen angel investments from his time at Flipkart and beyond.

Mr. Bansal, along with Flipkart's other co-founder Binny Bansal, recently invested in a recently announced endowment fund of IIT-D where they have committed 50 per cent of Rs 250 crore, which is the size of the fund.

Mr. Binny has also made a slew of start-up bets recently, including Mobikon, Acko Insurance, Niramai, among others.

Last Year, around US$ 1 billion were earned by Mr. Bansal from selling his shares in Flipkart, which was acquired by US retail giant Walmart Inc at a valuation US$ 20 million. Since then, he has been investing this capital in funding new ventures.

Presently, Navi Technologies is Bansal's primary investment vehicle. According to company filings, in the first four months of operations in 2018-19, it made Rs 16.7 crore (US$ 2.39 million) in revenue and Rs 1.93 crore in profit.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.