Binny Bansal says Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal quit because he wanted to do different things

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In May, Flipkart was acquired by US retail giant Walmart for $16 billion. Following the acquisition, Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal announced he was leaving the company to the surprise of many. At the time, Sachin posted on Facebook that he was stepping down to take time off for some "personal projects," but it now looks like the reason behind his departure has more to it.

As per Economic Times' report, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal said that Sachin Bansal wanted to do "different things" and that it was a good time for the latter to exist since a major investor was roped in. At an event on Saturday, Binny Bansal told Subrata Mitra, partner at venture capital firm Accel, that "Sachin played a very crucial role in building the company. He was the CEO for most of the time of the company, and his vision steered us to where we are."

"Going forward, there are different things (Sachin Bansal) wants to do and I want to do, so that's the decision we took. I think it was a good time because a major investor had come in," he added.

Binny Bansal did not go into detail about the "different things" he was referring about. At the time the deal between Flipkart and Walmart had been announced and Sachin Bansal said he was stepping down, reports including ET's own claimed that Sachin Bansal was disappointed with events that left him on the sidelines. Another report by LiveMint said that he felt unwanted at Flipkart and that his relationship with Binny, former CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy and rest of the team members soured during and after 2014.

"Every person has to decide for oneself what they want to do," Mitra told ET on Saturday. "Even on the investor side, some are there (in Flipkart) and some are not. We each had to make up our minds," he said. Mitra also defined Binny Bansal as the "backend guy" and Sachin Bansal as the "vision" of Flipkart.

Sachin Bansal started Flipkart with Binny Bansal in 2007 in Bengaluru. Following the deal announced in May, Sachin is expected to take home $1 billion after selling his 5.5 per cent stake. The Flipkart co-founder announced via a Facebook post that he would take some time out to for some "personal projects" and "catch up on gaming" and brush up his "coding skills". The Walmart-Flipkart deal is expected to close later this year.