Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal may invest $100 mn in Ola

Richer after his exit from his first venture Flipkart, Sachin Bansal seems all set to make his biggest personal investment ever in a company.

Bansal, who co-founded Flipkart about a decade ago and left when Walmart bought the online retailer this year, is reportedly planning to invest $100 million (around Rs 740 crore at current exchange rates) in cab-hailing app Ola.

If the deal goes through, this would be one the biggest individual investments in an Indian startup.

Bansal, also an angel investor , usually writes cheques ranging between $1 million and $10 million, according to Crunchbase.

On Thursday, The Economic Times reported, citing people it did not name, that Bansal will invest mostly via a purchase of new shares. The deal will include a small secondary component as well.

Email queries sent by TechCircle, seeking comments, to Ola did't immediately receive a response. Calls made and text messages sent to Bansal went unanswered.

This move seems to be a deviation from Bansal's past investments. As per VCCEdge, the data research platform of News Corp VCCircle, Bansal has made 16 angel investments so far. The list includes electric scooter maker Ather Energy, space technology startup Team Indus, news aggregation portal News in Shorts and ed-tech startup Unacademy.

Bansal exited Flipkart in May after selling his entire stake in the company to US-based retail giant Walmart. He had launched Flipkart in 2008 along with Binny Bansal.

In August, Mint had reported that Bansal was looking to raise a venture capital fund of $700 million to $1 billion for investing in startups. Bansal might contribute up to 40% of the fund, the report said. 

Bansal and Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal have come together earlier, too, in fighting for a “level-playing field” for Indian startups. Their demand found resonance among many in the Indian startup ecosystem. 

Bansal reignited the controversial debate again in February this year at an event in Delhi when he advocated for ‘selective globalisation’, saying it is something that the US and China already follow.

Bansal and Aggarwal are also investors in educational gaming company MadRat Games.