Ex-Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal invests Rs 3,000 crore in Navi Technologies

Sachin Bansal has pumped in more money into Navi Technologies, a company he set up to fund ventures in the financial services sector. Bansal along with Navi Founder Ankit Agarwal along with founders of Chaitanya Rural Finance and other investors have invested a total of Rs 3,226 crore into the company, as per regulatory filings sourced from paper.vc.

Bansal has invested Rs 253 crore in cash and Rs 2,675 crore in considerations other than cash, as per the filings.

Paresh Sukthankar, who was formerly with HDFC Bank has also infused Rs 10 crore into the company.

Bansal had set up Navi Technologies post his billion-dollar exit from Flipkart to fund startups in the financial sector.  He had initially invested Rs 888 crore in the company, formerly known as BaCQ.

Last year, Bansal had taken over as CEO of Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services (CRIDS), an NBFC focussed on providing microfinance to lower economic groups in rural areas after he acquired a 90 percent stake for more than $100 million.

Earlier this year, Bansal had applied for a banking license for CRIDS in January.

"Bansal held 94 percent stake in CRIDS and with this deal, he has transferred that holding to Navi Technologies, finally making it the holding company for his fintech foray," said Vivek Durai, Founder of paper.vc.

In an interview in February Bansal told CNBC-TV18 that after his journey at Flipkart, he wanted to work towards transforming financial services.

“What I realise is that if you are a high net-worth individual (HNI) in India, you get a great service. Everybody in India is lining up to provide good service, all the banks are after you but if you are a middle-class person or a lower-income person, you get a very bad experience,’ Bansal said,

“So, we thought that it would be a good thing if some of those principles of consumer tech can be brought into financial services, so the mission statement for us is we want to transform financial services, we want to simplify financial services and make them more accessible and affordable. We want to reduce cost and we want to improve customer experience.”

In 2019 alone, Bansal made several bets in the financial sector, and besides Chaitanya India Finance, had pumped money into financial players such as Altico Capital, Indostar Capital Finance, U Gro Capital and fintech startups such as Kissht and KrazyBee.

These investments were both in his personal capacity as well as through Navi Technologies. Bansal also received the green signal from the Competition Commission of India last month to acquire Essel Mutual Fund.