From E-comm to B-comm, the Bansals Get IT Right Flipkart, Lenskart, Myntra & Snapdeal, led by Bansals, command . 10k cr of the . 12k-cr mkt

Even a decade ago, the name “Bansal” would have broughtin imagesof coaching classes in Rajasthan’s Kota, but today it is the common factor binding the who’s who of India’s fledgling e-commerce sector. 

Five young men who answer to that name have emerged as trailblazers of Indian e-commerce, taking on global biggies like Amazon and eBay for top honours in the country’s exploding market for online retail. 
Online marketplaces Flipkart and Snapdeal, apparel retailer Myntra and eyewear retailer LensKart all have Bansals at the helm. Such is their clout that they account for nearly . 10,000 crore of the total online retail pie of about $2 billion (. 12,200 crore). 
Buttheir adeptness attrade and commerce is not a state secret. As a sub-sect of the Aggarwal community, the Bansals are known for running a tight ship when it comes to business and entrepreneurship. 
“We(Bansals)havethe math,finance and data skills that are extremely important for e-commerce,” said Rohit Bansal who teamed up with schoolmate and Wharton alumnusKunalBahlto set up online marketplace Snapdeal in 2010. 
The Bansals of the new economy also sport degrees from IIT and IIMs. The five Bansals with their four companies — Flipkart, Myntra, Snapdeal and LensKart — set up shop within the last seven years andcontrol about85%of India’s entire e-tailing industry. But they have to contend with the might of $75-billion (. 4.5 lakh crore) Amazon, which entered India last year and is investing heavily. 
Heading the fightback are Sachin Bansal, 32, and Binny Bansal, 31— founders of Bangalorebased Flipkart — who met each other while studying at IIT-Delhi. Their company today generates about . 6,100 crore in sales, half the industry total. 
Flipkart is also the biggest challenge for Amazon, a company where both the Bansals honed their skills before setting up on their own in 2007. 
Coming second is Snapdeal, whose Rohit Bansal, 31, graduated ahead of Sachin and Binny from IIT Delhi. “My ancestors from my paternal and maternal sides have all been businessmen,” said Rohit Bansal, who is from Malout, a small town in Punjab, just four hours from Chandigarh where the Bansals from Flipkart grew up. Snapdeal’s turnover is now half of Flipkart, and it is expected to cross the $1 billion mark next year. 
The Bansals are making a mark not just in horizontal marketplaces, but also single-category retail. Bangalore-based Myntra Designs, founded by another IITian Mukesh Bansal, is giving stiff competition to Flipkart in apparel, one of the highest-margin categories, where profits range from 30% to 50%. 
“It has come full circle with me getting in fashion retail online,” said Mukesh Bansal, CEO at Myntra, who hails from Haridwar. His father had opted for a public sector job over joining the family business — ironically, clothes trading. “No family influence made me think of entrepreneurship. But the startup bug bit me in Silicon Valley,” said Myntra’s Bansal, 38, who moved to India to start Myntra in 2007. His venture is targeting sales of . 1,500 crore next fiscal from apparel sales, the largest in its category. 
LensKart, founded by another Peyush Bansal, 30, is considering selling his other portals such as WatchKart, BagsKart and JewelKart to a horizontal player at the ‘right price’ to focus on the eyewear market. “My parents didn’t understand while I was starting up. But they came around later. You have to understand that they are products of their generation,” said Bansal, who is targeting revenue of . 100 crore from LensKart next fiscal. 
RBI Chair Professor for Economics & Social Sciences at IIM Bangalore Charan Singh says that a community’s dominance over a certain trade is a factor of its social interactions. “It can be likened to the Jewish community in the US which continues to hold top posts in US banking and technology industry.” 
Ashish Jhalani, head of retail advisory firm eTailing India, agrees. “Certain communities in India do encourage entrepreneurship. The Bansals and Aggarwals have definitely dominated businesses in India, particularly retail trading, for centuries.” 
    (With inputs from 
    Radhika P Nair) 
harsimran.julka@timesgroup.com