Sachin Bansal's Navi Raises $100 Million From Prosus in Maiden Institutional Round Ahead of IPO

Navi, the Bengaluru-based fintech company founded by Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal, has raised $100 million from Dutch technology investor Prosus in what the company describes as its first institutional capital raise since it was founded in 2018. The investment, structured through Prosus subsidiary MIH Payments Holdings BV, values Navi at approximately $1.3 billion and arrives months ahead of a planned initial public offering that people familiar with the company's plans say could target close to $300 million.

For eight years, Bansal — who made his fortune building and eventually exiting Flipkart in its $16 billion sale to Walmart — has largely self-funded Navi's growth, a rarity among Indian startups of comparable scale. That changes with the Prosus deal, which marks the company's formal entry into the institutional investor fold. “Their investment is a strong endorsement of the institution we're building at Navi,” Bansal said of the round, pointing to a relationship with Prosus and its parent Naspers that predates the fintech venture by more than a decade, stretching back to Naspers' early backing of Flipkart.

Navi's business today spans digital lending, insurance, mutual funds and UPI payments, with its non-banking financial company arm, Navi Finserv, crossing assets under management of roughly ₹13,000 crore (about $1.4 billion). The company said it reached consolidated profitability in the fourth quarter of its 2026 fiscal year, though it has not disclosed specific profit figures; multiple outlets citing regulatory filings have pegged full-year revenue at roughly $323 million.

The valuation attached to this round is notable in itself. Navi had previously sought institutional capital at a valuation near $2 billion in 2024, but talks failed to materialise into a deal at the time. The $1.3 billion figure now attached to the Prosus round represents a markdown of roughly 35 percent from that earlier target — a reminder that even profitable, well-known Indian fintech brands are not immune to the broader repricing that has swept growth-stage venture and pre-IPO rounds over the past two years. The gap between this funding valuation and Navi's reported ambition to list at around $2 billion in its forthcoming IPO will be closely watched by public-market investors assessing whether the company can bridge that difference through growth alone.

The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory clearances, including approval from the Competition Commission of India. Navi's path to the public markets has not been straightforward: the company first filed for a $440 million IPO in 2022, only to shelve those plans the following year as technology stocks slumped and several recently listed Indian internet companies traded well below their offer prices. With Prosus now on the cap table and a stronger profitability narrative in hand, Navi is betting that a second attempt at a public listing will land in a more receptive market — one where investors are less forgiving of growth-at-all-costs stories and more focused on unit economics, a shift Bansal's own trajectory from Flipkart founder to fintech operator has tracked closely.