Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has penned a letter to his employees before bowing out of the company he founded 11 years ago with his former Amazon colleague Binny Bansal. Sachin's ouster comes in toes of 77 per cent Flipkart stake acquisition by Walmart.
In his letter, Sachin said it was time for him to hand over the baton and focus on finishing a few personal projects.
Here's the full text of Sachin Bansal's letter to his employees and colleagues:
"Flipkart truly upheld audacity and customer centricity and I got to work with the best people. We took on some of the biggest challenges and solved many complex problems for India.
"Sadly my work here is done and after 10 years, it’s time to hand over the baton and move on from Flipkart. But I’ll be watching and cheering from the outside — Flipsters, you better continue to do a good job!
"I’ll be taking some long time off and focus on finishing a few personal projects which I haven’t been able to find time for. Will catch up on gaming (and see what kids are playing these days) and brush up on my coding skills.
"I will always cherish the relationships I’ve built and amazing experiences I’ve had. Wishing all the best to the whole team."
An IIT Delhi engineer, Sachin Bansal had categorically said in an interview earlier that he will never sell Flipkart, in which the US retail giant Walmart is finally buying 77 per cent stake for USD 16 billion (Rs 1.02 lakh crore).
After seeing ups and downs in business through 11-years, he has exited the business by selling his entire stake of over 5 per cent for around Rs 7,000 crore.
Binny, not related to Sachin, will retain his 5.5 per cent stake and will be Chairman of the company's Board. He said Walmart is the ideal partner for the next phase of Flipkart journey.
After working for e-commerce giant Amazon, the two friends set up Flipkart.
Sachin comes from a business family, while Binny's father was a banker and mother a public servant.
He started his career with an IT firm Techspan in 2005 and then joined Amazon Web Services in January 2006. Binny joined Amazon in January 2007 after working for an IT firm Sarnoff.
The Chandigarh duo envisaged making shopping easier. Sachin started operations of Flipkart in August 2007 and was joined by Binny Bansal about a month later.
They started Flipkart with selling books online with 'cash-on-delivery' facility to win the confidence of Indian consumers in online shopping.
The valuation of brand, which started business with Rs 4 lakh, is now over USD 20 billion or around Rs 1,35,000 crore after US retail giant Walmart's investment of USD 16 billion in the firm.
In January 2016, Sachin had to give up his role as Chief Executive Officer at the company reportedly due to performance-related issues.
Flipkart rejigged its management and Binny took over as CEO. A year later, Kalyan Krishnamurthy was elevated to the position of CEO of Flipkart.
The firm operated in India but it has parent firm registered in Singapore to avoid complex Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rules and high rate of taxes imposed on corporates.
The company has been raising billions in funding and investing in expansion and growth of the business.
Flipkart's parent firm has reportedly posted loss of Rs 8,771 crore for the financial year ending March 2017.
Its sales were around USD 4.6 billion in the financial year ended March 31, 2018.
(With inputs from PTI)
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