Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal has sold a stake in his company worth $264 million (more than Rs 2,000 crore) to Chinese Internet giant Tencent, IANS reports. The development occurs as the neighboring country has once again hardened its position along the Indian border.
The company bought Bansal’s stake through its European subsidiary, Tencent Cloud Europe BV, in October last year. Tencent now holds 0.72 percent of Walmart-owned Flipkart, according to media reports that were later confirmed by reliable sources. Bansal now holds nearly 1.84 percent of Flipkart’s shares. No response was received from Flipkart.
In addition to Bansal selling Flipkart stock to Tencent, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Saturday that China is hardening its position along the Indian border. Austin said that China is taking aggressive and illegal approaches to the territories it claims in the South China Sea, speaking to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. In the West, Beijing has been hardening its stance along its borders with India, he said. For nearly two years, India and China have been at odds over their border.
About Flipkart and its founders: Top 5 points to know
- Sachin and Binny Bansal, who received their B.Tech degree in computer science and engineering from IIT-D in 2005, built one of the largest e-commerce marketplaces in India.
- Sachin led Flipkart as its CEO from its inception in 2007 till 2015, and took over as the Executive Chairman in 2016. He is currently leading and mentoring the startup and internet ecosystem in India and is an angel investor in several technology startups.
- Binny served as the Chief Operating Officer of Flipkart till January 2016 before being promoted as its Chief Executive Officer. He exited Flipkart in November 2018, and became a prolific angel investor.
- Flipkart, Amazon, Reliance’s JioMart, and Tata-backed BigBasket have fired up India’s online retail market that is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 19.8 per cent to reach $85.5 billion by 2025, according to a report by Forrester.
- Flipkart raised $3.6 billion (about Rs 27,000 crore) in funding led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, CPP Investments, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Walmart in July 2021. The funding round had taken Flipkart’s valuation to $37.6 billion.
(Based on IANS inputs)