Kunal Bahl

Some Lesser Known Facts About Kunal Bahl

• Kunal Bahl is an Indian businessman and investor who owns popular companies like ‘Snapdeal’ and ‘Titan Capital.’

• Kunal’s father passed away when he was just 14 years old, and Kunal’s brother Viraj is the founder and managing director of VRB Consumer (Veeba Food Services Pvt Ltd).

• When Kunal Bahl finished his studies in the United States, he got a job offer at Microsoft, and on the other hand, he also filed an application in the US embassy to get a work visa; however, the visa got rejected and Kunal Bahl had to return back to India. Kunal made a LinkedIn post in which he shared his entire experience of how he got through those days of visa rejection and also mentioned how the American investors later invested in his company in India.

  

• Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal were classmates at Delhi Public School. In 2007, both of them founded a company named ‘Jasper Infotech.’ The company was subjected to selling discount coupons to its customers, both online and offline.

  

• In 2009, Kunal and Rohit faced a tough time in terms of finances and paying off salaries to their employees at Jasper Infotech, which made them have no other option other than to take out money from their own personal bank accounts. After paying the salaries, both the business partners were left with less than one lakh in each of their bank accounts.

• In 2010, Kunal and Rohit launched a company named ‘Snapdeal,’ which was initially subjected to selling discount coupons for restaurants, hotels, and movie theatres to its customers. However; in 2011, both business partners took an official trip to China where they saw how successful their online marketplace ‘Alibaba.com’ was, and that’s when both of them decided to transform the working of Snapdeal and make it a marketplace.

  

• In 2014, Kunal Bahl was featured in the list of ET Top 50 Entrepreneurs of India, and he was also 25th on the Fortune 40 under 40 most influential business leaders list.

• In 2015, Kunal Bahl along with Rohit Bansal started a company named ‘Titan Capital,’ a capital market company that helps entrepreneurs build a wide-scale business. Kunal Bahl has invested in and made many famous brands successful, and some of the brands include Ola Cabs, Urban Company, Razorpay, Ofbusiness, and Mamaearth.

• In 2015, Kunal was assigned as an elected member of the board of governors of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.

• In 2019, Kunal Bahl was designated as a member of the Nasscom Executive Committee, which focuses on strengthening the foundations of the industry, including innovation, market access, policy advocacy, talent, and inclusion.

• Kunal Bahl serves as the independent director of Piramal Group’s flagship company named ‘Piramal Enterprises Limited.’ The company deals with financial services that include retail lending, Kunal Bahl is also the director of the capital market company named ‘Investcorp India Acquisition Corp,’ which works for the purpose of share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination.

• In 2020, Kunal was designated as the chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) E-Commerce Committee, which focuses on the government’s e-commerce policy, consumer protection regulations, and the intermediary status of e-commerce platforms in the immediate future.

• In 2022, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal bought into existence an umbrella company named ‘AceVector Group,’ which brings together innovation in distribution channels with the group formation of companies like Snapdeal, Unicommerce, and Stellaro Brands.

• Kunal Bahl has invested in more than 100 technological companies in different places across the globe including India, the United States, and Southeast Asia. The fields that he has invested in are consumer internet, fintech, AI, deep-tech, and direct-to-consumer brands.

• Kunal Bahl was appointed as part of the National Startup Advisory Council (NSAC) whose prime role is to advise the government on efforts needed to build a strong startup ecosystem in India.

• In October 2024, he entered the business reality television series Shark Tank India as a judge.