After Flipkart, Binny Bansal leaves PhonePe’s board

Binny Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart, has resigned from PhonePe’s Board of Directors. Bansal has been a board member since Flipkart acquired PhonePe in 2016. Notably, the digital payments firm separated from Flipkart in December 2022.

However, Binny has not sold his stake and is still the single largest individual minority shareholder at PhonePe. In January, he took a complete exit from the e-commerce marketplace Flipkart, which he co-founded along with Sachin Bansal.

In a parallel development, PhonePe has appointed Manish Sabharwal as an Independent Director and Chair of its Audit Committee. He will play a key role in ensuring the integrity and effectiveness of PhonePe's financial reporting, internal controls, and risk management processes.

Sabharwal is the Vice-Chairman of TeamLease Services, India’s largest staffing and human capital firm. Previously, he served as an Independent Director on the Board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and a governing board member of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).

“..His [Sabharwal] incredible depth of understanding of India's macro economy, coupled with his leadership in shaping India's policies for education, employment, and employability, will be invaluable as PhonePe continues to work ahead towards our shared vision of a Viksit Bharat by 2047,” said Sameer Nigam, CEO and Founder of PhonePe.

Earlier this year, PhonePe appointed Ritesh Pai as chief executive officer of its international payments business. In the past couple of years, the Bengaluru-based company has expanded into financial services including Insurance, lending and wealth)as well as new consumer tech businesses such as Pincode and Indus App Store.

For the fiscal year ending in March 2024, PhonePe’s revenue from operations surged by 73.8% to Rs 5,064 crore. The company managed to reduce its net losses by 28.6%, bringing them down to Rs 1,996 crore in the last fiscal year from Rs 2,795 crore in FY23.