Flipkart's Binny Bansal confirms "scale and growth" are priorities following Walmart deal

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jun 5, 2018

After top executives at both Walmart and Flipkart have assured that Flipkart’s board of directors will remain independent, the e-commerce site’s co-founder and group CEO, Binny Bansal has revealed his plans to focus on "scale and growth" moving forward, following Walmart’s $16 billion acquisition deal where it picked up a 77 percent stake in Flipkart.

“Thankfully, nothing is changing... Flipkart has been a board-run company and with Walmart coming in as an investor the operating structure doesn’t change and Flipkart will still be a board-run company,” assured Bansal at Walmart’s Bentonville headquarters in Arkansas. “Members of the board will change a little bit but I will continue to report to the board.” Bansal’s brother, Sachin Bansal left Flipkart before the deal went through as did some others but the core will remain intact.

The group agreed that Flipkart’s focus moving forward will be to prepare for a possible initial public offering (IPO) and to focus on “scale and growth”, according to Bansal. The business will also bring in new financial investors to accompany current investors including Tiger and Accel which, according to Bansal, will “help in making an IPO a reality.”

Both Walmart and Flipkart have agreed to work to bring Indian products to other countries and not just American products to India as part of the deal. “We’ll be looking at Indian sellers selling on different Walmart properties across the globe. Not just bringing stuff to India, but also taking stuff to the world,” said Bansal.