Sachin Bansal aims to simplify financial services to make it more accessible

Sachin Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart is these days intensely focussed on the financial services sector, having turned investor in a bunch of fintech companies.

Bansal is on a mission to revolutionise and disrupt India’s banking system, looking to simplify financial services and make it more accessible. “Digital technologies have changed a lot but the financial services space has not adopted all of that yet. So we thought that it would be a good thing if some of those principles of consumer tech can be brought into financial services,” he said in an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18.

Bansal, who exited e-commerce company Flipkart after it was purchased by Walmart in May 2018 (link), used those days to understand India’s banking space and the financial services space “What I realised was that if you are an HNI in India, you get a great service but if you are a middle-class person or a lower-income person in India, you get a very bad experience.”

Bansal’s investments, particularly in finance, gathered pace last year (link). He has put money in financial services players such as Chaitanya India Finance Altico Capital, Indostar Capital Finance, U Gro Capital and fintech startups such as Kissht and KrazyBee, according to data from Venture Intelligence.

In the interview, Bansal explained how he plans to transform the financial services space in India. “ We are going to build a lot of technology in-house instead of outsourcing it and getting it done from vendors because we believe that creates a bit of a layer of separation from technology to the business, which is not healthy.”

Banking and financial services have transformed in the last 20 years and have largely become tech companies, according to him. “So, they need to build tech like tech companies, which is like Flipkart, Amazon, or a Google. I would say that we are going to try doing some of that and solve some key problems for our set of customers, which are middle class customers of India and see where it goes from there,” he said.

Industry experts agree that Bansal's focus on financial services is backed by his insights on Indian consumers through his experience at Flipkart and the opportunity to disrupt the space with tech. He is currently CEO Navi Technologies.

Bansal and Binny Bansal, both former Amazon employees, founded Flipkart in 2007.

On the next steps, Bansal said he is the process of applying for some licences. “We are talking to regulators on a regular basis, we are engaging with them. There are back and forth questions and answers.”

Bansal said he faces regular questions because of his consumer tech mindset. “Can we run a great bank? Can we build a great bank? These are legitimate questions for any regulator.”