Flipkart’s co-founder, Sachin Bansal, is seeking fresh capital for his new startup, Indian fintech Navi.
Multiple sources privy to the matter claimed that Bansal is talking to investors to raise an external round of funding at a valuation of around $2 billion.
Before its acquisition by Walmart, Sachin Bansal co-founded Flipkart with Binny Bansal in 2007 as an e-commerce marketplace that offers over 30 million products across 70+ categories. They were recently announced as the youngest Indian billionaires.
According to one source, he wants to raise between $200 million and $400 million.
This would be the Bengaluru-based startup’s first significant outside fundraising since it was established in 2018.
Newsng understands that Bansal has mostly funded Navi on his own up to this point. The company was created in 2018.
The parameters and Bansal’s willingness to accept outside money could alter as the talks haven’t concluded into a deal, as the people warned.
Navi has experienced several financial ups and downs. The company provides consumers with health insurance, housing and personal loans, and other financial services. Filed in 2022, Navi’s original goal was to raise $440 million through a public listing. But last year, with the IPO market in collapse, the business gave up on those goals.
The fundraising discussions indicate both a positive development for fintech worldwide and a notable change in the Indian venture market.
This may indicate that growth-stage fundraising rounds are returning to the table following a very difficult 2023 in which the nation’s total startup funding plunged by 73%.
In a similar report, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), OpenAI has modified the governance structure of its venture capital fund, which supports AI businesses.
As a result, its well-known CEO Sam Altman no longer owns or controls the $175 million fund.
