How The Flipkart Mafia Flipped The Fate Of The Indian Startup Ecosystem

Flipkart Founders, 10 Years, 233 Flipsters, 207 Startups And $400 Mn In Funding

It all started with two former executives of the global ecommerce giant, Amazon – two IIT Delhi 2005 batchmates and Chandigarh natives, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, began an online platform just for selling books in 2007. Starting from the first customer in October 2007, and being in business for 10 years, Flipkart has now become one of the biggest ecommerce marketplaces in India with a registered customer base of over 100 Mn, has more than 80 Mn products across 80+ categories, more than 1 Lakh + registered sellers, having raised over $4.55 Bn in combined funding and is now valued at about $11.2 Bn. These numbers show the trajectory of a company’s humble beginnings to its almost unprecedented success despite devaluations by investor and changes in leadership.

As per our findings, there are over 207 startups that have been founded by ex-employees of Flipkart. But it doesn’t stop there. Our data also shows that there are over 49 Indian startups that have been backed by Flipkart, Flipkart founders, and/or current and ex-employees. Almost three startups are added to the gang every month, taking the Flipkart Mafia’s strength to a massive 250+ startups.

This kind of entrepreneurial reach is self-evident for a company that has been in business for as long as Flipkart has, employing thousands of people since its launch and which currently boasts a total employee strength of 27,000 – of which 8,000 are full-time employees, along with 19,000 delivery boys and others. This sprawling staff is spread across 300 cities and is vitally important for an emerging economy.

Another probable cause that aided the Flipkart Mafia Myth is the fact that the Flipkart team is full of employees who are IIT and IIM alums. They have played pivotal roles in product management, design, marketing and so on. Their expertise makes them capable of understanding entrepreneurship, hold problem-solving capabilities. All of this together enabled them to fearlessly start their own businesses.

Funders And Founders

A quick overview of the data shows that there are over 233 former Flipsters who are now founders of startups spread across India. And more than 12 current and former employees, besides Flipkart and its co-founders, who are actively investing in Indian startups. Also, the company has acquired/acqui-hired some 11 startups itself, which are now a part of the company (of these WeRead, Mime360, Chakpak and LetsBuy were shut down by the company).

1. Our stats show that about 44% of these founders stuck around in the company for a period of one year, about 8.62% for about three years, and just 7% stayed for more than three years. This can be credited to the high attrition rate witnessed commonly in startups, in general.
2. Over 13.79% of these founders were analysts, 10% were software developers and about 9% of these were interns or trainees during their tenure at the company.
3. Over 34% of these founders are IITians, about 8% are IIM alums, and 2% are both IIMs and IITs. 
4. On analysing the founder demographics by age, we found that over 87 founders currently lie in the age bracket of 26-30 years, while 82 founders are under the 25 years bracket.
5. Data shows that over 97 founders launched their company within one year of leaving Flipkart while over 59 launched after a year and the rest after two years or more.
6. A more noteworthy point is that most of the companies are founded by single founders – the number is somewhere around 123, and over 42 companies are founded by a trio, followed by 10 companies founded by four co-founders.
7. Over 47.09% of the Flipkart Mafia startups operate in Consumer Internet space, with about 13% companies in the ecommerce space, followed by 9% and 7% in hyperlocal and logistics, respectively.

This article was first published on Inc42, click here to read the complete analysis.