SUMMARY
With its New York expansion already underway, SPC is now looking towards India as it gears up to launch its third fund
SPC is working closely with Flipkart’s Binny Bansal to bring an early-stage incubation and venture project to the India market
Founded in 2016 by Ruchi Sanghvi, SPC operates as a collective of engineers, founders, and researchers
Silicon Valley-based South Park Commons (SPC), a community of technologists and builders dedicated to helping each other share ideas, explore directions and realise opportunities, is reportedly working with Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal to set up its presence in India.
With its New York expansion already underway, SPC is now looking towards India as it gears up to launch its third fund.
Speaking about the plans for India, Aditya Agarwal, partner at SPC, told ET that their long-term goal at SPC had always been to extend their philosophy of transitioning from the ‘negative one to zero’ phase to any location harbouring talent, ambition, and a desire to explore new opportunities and build companies.
“India is perhaps the most dynamic and interesting country for technology entrepreneurship in the world right now… Ruchi and I are working closely with (Flipkart cofounder) Binny Bansal to bring an early-stage incubation and venture project to the India market. We are also evaluating the UK to expand into,” he added.
Further, Agarwal said he is currently serving as an advisor to the leadership at ADL (Adani Digital Labs), contributing to the development of a product roadmap. “I’ll be offering guidance, perspective and strategic insight across different functions and verticals, in particular, from my time as the lead independent director of Flipkart.”
SPC was founded in 2016 by Ruchi Sanghvi. It operates as a collective of engineers, founders, and researchers. Since its inception, SPC has evolved from a learning group into a platform that has raised two funds to support entrepreneurs with very early-stage ideas.
This comes at a time when Bansal stepped down from the board of Flipkart in January, citing a conflict of interest between the ecommerce major and his new venture.
In 2022, Binny Bansal sold some of his stake in Flipkart for $264 Mn (around INR 2,060 Cr) to Chinese tech giant Tencent, and brought down his stake count to 1.84%. Last year, Bansal sold his remaining stakes in Flipkart to its new owner Walmart which acquired majority stakes in the ecommerce giant in 2018 for $18 Bn.
Later, in 2023, the retail giant bought Tiger Global’s shares in the company for $1.4 Bn, giving it an exit.
After Walmart’s acquisition, both the founders of the ecommerce giant stepped down.
In addition to being an entrepreneur, Bansal is also an active investor in several startups including VideoVerse, Curefoods, SuperK, among others. Also, he launched B2B startup XTo10X Technologies to help startups with product-market fit and initial business momentum.
Meanwhile, earlier this month the Flipkart cofounder recently injected $2 Mn (INR 16.5 Cr) into his new venture, OppDoor, through investment vehicle Three State Ventures.
