Binny Bansal, Kunal Shah, others back former Flipkart exec’s e-commerce start-up

The Flipkart Mafia continues to grow bigger. Flash, a start-up founded by Flipkart's ex-Senior Vice President, Ranjith Boyanapalli, has raised a seed round of $5.8 million from Global Founders Capital, White Venture Capital, Zinal Growth, Soma Capital, Emphasis Ventures, Peer Capital. 

Prominent angel investors, including Binny Bansal (Flipkart founder and former CEO), Kunal Shah (CRED Founder), Sujeet Kumar (Udaan Co-founder), Lalit Keshre (Groww CEO), Rishi Vasudev (GOAT Brand Labs Co-Founder, among others, also participated in the round.

Founded in April 2022, Flash is building a platform to create a unique digital shopping identity for customers. It plans to deploy the capital towards product development, hiring, and global expansion. The start-up is targeting India’s top 25 million ‘power shoppers’, who account for almost 70 per cent of e-commerce revenues. Through its platform, it will grant users end-to-end control of their shopping experience online. 

Commenting on the funding, Ranjith Boyanapalli, Founder & CEO, Flash said, “The unique digital shopping identity will allow online shoppers to access personalized experiences, rewards, and clutter-free communications. Our AI/ML-led platform will be backed by best-in-class encryption to protect privacy and give control back to the consumer.” 

Flash, which is yet to launch its product, looks to onboard two million users in the first year. “With an elite guild of VC Funds and Angel investors on board, who have put their trust in us and supported us with their experience, we hope that Flash can undoubtedly change the way we shop,”  Boyanapalli added. 

The total addressable market of power shoppers is estimated to grow to 65 million by 2030. “Power shoppers are an important consumer segment and their challenges are bound to magnify with increasing e-commerce penetration in India and globally. We are impressed with the Flash team and product and are confident that they will make a significant impact over the coming years,” Roel Janssen, Partner, Global Founders Capital stated.

 “We are excited to back a founder like Ranjith who has extensive experience building great consumer products,” he added. 

Prior to this, Boyanapalli had an eight-year stint at Walmart-owned Flipkart, serving across multiple divisions, including fintech and payments, product, customer experience and business development. 

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