Kunal Bahl

Kunal Bahl
Kunal Bahl in 2015
Born
New Delhi, India
NationalityIndian
EducationB.S.E in Entrepreneurship, Operation & Information Management, Wharton
B.A.S in Engineering
Alma materUniversity of Pennsylvania
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, Investor
Known forE-commerce, Venture Capital

Kunal Bahl is an Indian technology entrepreneur and investor.[1][2]

Early life

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Bahl was born in India and had completed his initial school education at Delhi Public School R. K. Puram (DPS) New Delhi. He applied to the University of Pennsylvania and received admission. He graduated from the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology at the University of Pennsylvania, earning two bachelor's degrees in Entrepreneurship, Operation & Information Management from The Wharton School and Engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He finished an executive marketing program from Kellogg School of Management.[3] He worked with Microsoft for a short period, as he went back to India due to a visa issue in 2007.[4][5]

Career

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Bahl co-founded the e-commerce company Snapdeal in 2010.[6][7] In 2022, the company assumed the group corporate identity of AceVector, which houses multiple businesses such as Snapdeal, Unicommerce, and Stellaro Brands.[8]

He is the Promoter of Unicommerce, a leading SaaS company in India, which had a blockbuster IPO in 2024 becoming on the most highly subscribed IPOs of the year.[9]

He is also the Co-founder of Titan Capitalwhich is a leading early stage venture capital firm in India and has invested in companies like Ola, Urban Company, Mamaearth, Credgenics, Shadowfax, Razorpay, Giva, among others. Famously Titan Capital, which invests the personal funds of Kunal and Rohit Bansal, has made returns of over 100 times in many investments like Ola, Urban Company, Mamaearth, among others.[10]

Bahl has also been involved with various industry associations and think-tanks. He has been on the board of governors of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations,[11] a member of the executive council of NASSCOM,[12] and the chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Committee on E-commerce.[13] He also serves on the National Startup Advisory Council, a committee to advise the Indian government on efforts needed to build a strong startup ecosystem.[14]

He also serves as an Independent Director on the Board of Piramal Enterprises, an Indian conglomerate.[15]

Television

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Kunal was one of the three main judges and investors in Prime Video's reality TV show "Mission Start Ab" aired on 19 December 2023.[16][17]

Awards and recognitions

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  • BMA Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 [18]
  • ET Top 50 Entrepreneur of India 2014[19]
  • Ranked 25 on Fortune 40 under 40 most influential business leaders list 2014 [20]
  • EY Entrepreneur of the Year - Startup 2014 [21]
  • Nasscom NextGen Entrepreneur 2014 [22]
  • The Economic Times Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2015[23]
  • AIMA Transformational Business Leader of the Year [24]
  • Indian Affairs Business Leader of the Year 2015 [25]
  • The Joseph Wharton Award for Young Leadership 2018[26]
  • The Economic Times Comeback Award 2019[27]

Personal life

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Bahl is married to Yashna, who ran a confectionery business.[28]

References

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  1. ^ "Kunal Bahl: Snapdeal's CEO created one of India's largest online marketplaces". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 21 September 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  2. ^ "In the news". The Financial Express. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  3. ^ Gupte, Masoom. "Here's what connects Snapdeal's Kunal Bahl and CEAT's Anant Goenka". The Economic Times. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  4. ^ "All for love: When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella surrendered his Green Card for wife Anu". 26 September 2017.
  5. ^ "Lunch with BS: Kunal Bahl". Business Standard. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  6. ^ "The Evolution of Snapdeal". Forbes. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  7. ^ "Supercharged". Business Today. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  8. ^ Upadhyay, Harsh (14 June 2022). "Snapdeal, Unicommerce and Stellaro brands house under AceVector". Entrackr. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  9. ^ "Unicommerce eSolutions makes stellar market debut as shares list at 118% premium".
  10. ^ "Titan Capital's 100x return club: MamaEarth, Ola, Urban Company and Credgenics".
  11. ^ "Board Of Governors | Think tank | ICRIER". icrier.org. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  12. ^ "Executive Council". NASSCOM. 27 September 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  13. ^ "Snapdeal's Kunal Bahl to lead CII's e-commerce committee". mint. 13 July 2020. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  14. ^ "National Startup Advisory Council Nominates 28 Non-Official Members From The Startup Ecosystem". The StartupLab : Compliance | Tech | Funding. 20 January 2021. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  15. ^ "Piramal Enterprises appoints Kunal Bahl, Suhail Nathani as independent directors to its board". The Economic Times. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  16. ^ "Prime Video's Mission Start Ab, a billion Dollar Opportunity for New Businesses". BruTimes.
  17. ^ "New on Amazon Prime Video this week: 'Dry Day', 'Mission Start Ab' and more". The Hindu. 19 December 2023.
  18. ^ "36th BMA awards". The Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  19. ^ "ET Award". Orissa Diary. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  20. ^ "40 under 40". Fortune. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  21. ^ "EY entrepreneur of the year". The Financial Express. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  22. ^ "innovate-india-challenge" "NASSCOM SPECIAL AWARDS". Nasscom. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  23. ^ "ET Awards 2015: Snapdeal's Kunal Bahl wins Entrepreneur of the Year; here's what he said". The Economic Times. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  24. ^ "AIMA Managing India Awards". AIMA. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  25. ^ "India Leadership Conclave 2015".
  26. ^ "Kunal Bahl, W'06, Eng'06". www.whartonny.com. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  27. ^ "Tenacity of Snapdeal founders makes them 'Comeback Kid' in ET Startup Awards 2019". The Economic Times. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  28. ^ "Flipkart CEO wanted to be a gamer, Snapdeal chief a food and film critic". Business Standard. Retrieved 1 December 2015.