As co-founder and executive chairman of Flipkart Sachin Bansal is set to leave the ecommerce giant he co-founded and led for over 10 years, Binny Bansal, co-founder and CEO, Flipkart penned down a farewell note Sachin.
Recollecting their first order that led them to scout Bengaluru for a book and how Flipkart changed the perception of online shopping in India, Binny says that Sachin will always be seen as the face of that new, tech-powered Flipkart.
“A visionary, Sachin was instrumental in making Flipkart a tech-driven company, and ensuring the latest innovations were developed in-house and deployed across functions — ranging from how customers interacted with the website or mobile app, to how orders were fulfilled, to creating a delightful customer experience,” he wrote in a blog post on Thursday.
Sachin, born to a family of foodgrain traders in 1981, Binny says Sachin always thought gaming was his calling.
“When I met Sachin for the first time, he had been mandated to work through the summer to fulfil course requirements, while I was on a project at the FPGA hardware lab. After graduating, Sachin moved to Bengaluru to work in an IT services firm. He found the monotony of the work mind-numbing, so he applied to Amazon and found a job as a software engineer in the Payments group of Amazon Web Services. By this time, I had also arrived in the city, working at Sarnoff, until Sachin referred me to Amazon where we became colleagues in the same unit,” he says.
Eventually, both quit to launch Flipkart.
Binny refers to Sachin as a dear friend and guide, adding that his biggest contribution is perhaps shaping Flipkart in its formative years and leading Flipkart to become one of the most recognized brands in India.
Sachin, according to Binny, taught and pushed everyone to think big, take big bets, and to think for customers and for India. The words ‘audacious’ and ‘disruptive’ is what personifies Sachin at Flipkart.
“Building Flipkart into one of the world’s most-valued tech companies will certainly be one of Sachin’s legacies. But, perhaps, a more fulfilling legacy will be that Sachin was instrumental in bringing a smile on the faces of millions of people every time they saw a Flipkart wishmaster at their doorstep,” he adds.
Walmart has acquired roughly 77% stake in Flipkart for approximately $16 billion. Walmart’s investment includes $2 billion of new equity funding. Walmart and Flipkart are also in discussions with additional potential investors who may join the round.
The deal will also see Sachin exiting the company by selling his entire 5.5% stake in Flipkart for $1 billion.
On Wednesday, Sachin took to Facebook to announce his exit, saying that he will be taking time off to focus on finishing a few personal projects, while catching up on gaming and brushing up his coding skills.