Binny Bansal resigns from Flipkart: A Timeline of events

Walmart acquired Flipkart in May this year.

New Delhi: Flipkart Group (now controlled by Walmart Inc) CEO Binny Bansal Tuesday resigned after an allegation of 'serious personal misconduct'. The allegation however  has been strongly denied by Bansal.

“While the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant’s assertions against Binny, it did reveal other lapses in judgement, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation. Because of this, we have accepted his decision to resign,” Walmart has said.

Following acquisition by Walmart in May this year,  Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal exited the business by selling his entire stake of over 5 percent for around Rs 7,000 crore while Binny had retained his 5.5 percent stake.

Here is a Timeline of events at Flipkart

• Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (not related) set up Flipkart in 2007 in Bengaluru.
• The duo met in 2005 at IIT-Delhi and had also worked at Amazon. Flipkart started as an online books selling platform.
• In October 2009, Accel Partners comes on board as an investor pumping in USD 1 million.
• Just months later, US hedge fund Tiger Global joins Accel to invest USD 10 million. Flipkart has raised USD 1.4 billion from Tencent, eBay and Microsoft, while SoftBank Vision Fund added USD 2.5 billion to its kitty.
• In 2010, Flipkart pioneers 'Cash on Delivery' in India, changing the way India shops online.
• Flipkart registers in Singapore in 2011.
• Flipkart has acquired companies like WeRead, Letsbuy, FX Mart, fashion e-tail player Myntra and UPI-based payments startup PhonePe. It also bought majority stake in companies like Jeeves and ngpay.
• 2017 turns out to be a watershed year for Flipkart as company crosses the 100 million registered users mark. Today, it has over one lakh registered sellers and 21 warehouses.
• The company undergoes management rejig. Former Tiger Global executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy comes in as Flipkart CEO. Co-founder Binny Bansal is made Group CEO, while Sachin Bansal continues as Chairman.
• Flipkart offers to buy Snapdeal but the deal fails to fructify after the smaller rival decides to chart independent course.
• Flipkart buys back shares worth USD 350 million from investors as a precursor to the mega deal with Walmart.

With PTI Inputs