Amazon vs Flipkart: Founders, CEOs and History
Amazon was founded in 1994 by Jeffrey Preston Bezos and is led by Andy Jassy. Flipkart was founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal and is led by Kalyan Krishnamurthy.
Company facts
Founders
Amazon
Jeffrey Preston Bezos
Amazon was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, an electrical engineering and computer science graduate from Princeton who was working as a paid quantitative analyst at the Wall Street firm D. E. Shaw & Co.
Flipkart
Sachin Bansal
Bansal co-founded Flipkart in Bengaluru as an online bookstore, pioneering Cash on Delivery (COD) in India and scaling it into the country's leading e-commerce platform before its $16B Walmart buyout.
Binny Bansal
Bansal co-founded Flipkart, building the Ekart national supply chain logistics backbone and driving consumer electronics retail scale before serving as Group CEO. Binny Bansal (born 1982/1983) is an Indian billionaire Internet entrepreneur.
CEOs and their tenures
Amazon
- Jeffrey P. Bezos1994–2021
Founder & CEO
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 and was chief executive until July 2021. He moved the company beyond books in 1998, opened the store to third-party sellers in November 2000, launched Prime in 2005, funded AWS from 2006, and bought Whole Foods Market in 2017.…
Source - Andrew R. Jassy2021–present
CEO
Andy Jassy became Amazon's chief executive in July 2021. He started the AWS business in 2003 and led it as it grew into the largest cloud infrastructure provider by revenue, reporting $128.7 billion of net sales and $45.6 billion of operating income in FY2025.
Source
Flipkart
- Ravi Iyer
Chief Financial Officer, Flipkart
Took charge of the broader Flipkart finance organisation after Group CFO Sriram Venkataraman announced his exit in March 2026.
- Sachin Bansal2007–2016
Co-founder & former CEO
An IIT Delhi computer science graduate and former Amazon software engineer, Bansal laid the foundational infrastructure for India's modern internet economy.
Source - Binny Bansal2016–2017
Co-founder & former Group CEO
Binny Bansal was instrumental in engineering Ekart's national logistics network before transitioning to Group CEO during Flipkart's historic transaction with Walmart.
Source - Kalyan Krishnamurthy2017–present
CEO
A former Tiger Global managing director with an MBA from UIUC, Krishnamurthy's execution prowess solidified Flipkart's position as India's leading digital retail ecosystem.
Source
Timeline: Amazon and Flipkart side by side
1994Amazon
Amazon Founded
Jeff Bezos incorporated the company as Cadabra, Inc. in Washington state on July 5, 1994, after leaving D. E. Shaw. He and MacKenzie Scott drove from New York to Seattle, and Bezos began building the website in the garage of a rented house in Bellevue.
1995Amazon
Amazon.com Launches
Amazon.com went live on July 16, 1995, selling books. In the first month the site shipped orders to all fifty US states and forty-five other countries.
1997Amazon
IPO on NASDAQ
Amazon went public on May 14, 1997, selling 3,000,000 shares at $18 each on NASDAQ under the ticker AMZN, raising $54 million. Net sales that year grew 838% to $147.8 million.
2000Amazon
Third-Party Marketplace Launch
Amazon Marketplace launched in November 2000, letting third parties sell on the same product pages as Amazon. Third-party sellers accounted for 61% of paid units by the fourth quarter of 2025.
2005Amazon
Amazon Prime Introduced
Amazon announced Prime on February 2, 2005, a $79-per-year membership with unlimited two-day delivery on about one million items. The US price is now $139 a year.
2006Amazon
AWS Launches Cloud Services
Amazon Web Services announced Amazon S3 on March 14, 2006, followed by EC2 later that year. AWS reported $128.7 billion of net sales and $45.6 billion of operating income in FY2025.
2007Amazon
Kindle E-Reader Launch
Amazon released the first Kindle in November 2007 at $399, with free cellular downloads over Whispernet and the Kindle self-publishing service launched the same day.
2007Flipkart
Flipkart founded in Bengaluru by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal as an online bookstore.
2009Flipkart
Accel India invests $1 million in seed capital, accelerating tech infrastructure and marketing.
2010Flipkart
Flipkart pioneers Cash on Delivery (COD), sparking large consumer trust and transaction growth.
2012Amazon
Kiva Systems Acquisition
Amazon agreed in March 2012 to buy Kiva Systems for approximately $775 million in cash, bringing warehouse robotics in house. Kiva became Amazon Robotics.
2014Amazon
Twitch Acquisition
Amazon agreed in August 2014 to acquire Twitch Interactive for approximately $970 million in cash, adding live game streaming and a creator community to its media assets.
2014Flipkart
Launches inaugural Big Billion Days festival and acquires premier fashion marketplace Myntra for $300M.
2015Amazon
Echo and Alexa Reach Everyone
Amazon introduced the Echo speaker and the Alexa assistant in November 2014 for Prime members by invitation, then made Echo generally available in the US in June 2015.
2016Flipkart
Acquires UPI payments startup PhonePe, integrating mobile payments across its commerce ecosystem.
2017Amazon
Whole Foods Acquisition
Amazon agreed in June 2017 to buy Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion including debt, adding roughly 460 stores and a physical grocery base for delivery and pickup.
2017Flipkart
Kalyan Krishnamurthy becomes CEO; Flipkart raises $1.4 billion from Tencent, eBay and Microsoft, then $2.5 billion from SoftBank Vision Fund.
2018Flipkart
Walmart acquires a 77% controlling stake for $16 billion, its largest acquisition ever.
2021Amazon
Andy Jassy Becomes CEO
Amazon announced on February 2, 2021 that Jeff Bezos would move to executive chair and Andy Jassy would become CEO. The handover took place on July 5, 2021.
2021Flipkart
Acquires travel platform Cleartrip; raises $3.6 billion at a $37.6 billion valuation.
2022Amazon
MGM Acquisition Completed
Amazon completed its acquisition of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in March 2022 at a purchase price of $8.45 billion, adding a library of more than 4,000 films and 17,000 television episodes to Prime Video.
2022Flipkart
Completes the separation of PhonePe into an independent company, with both remaining under Walmart majority ownership.
2023Amazon
One Medical Deal Closes and the FTC Sues
Amazon completed its $3.9 billion acquisition of One Medical in February 2023. In September 2023 the FTC and 17 state attorneys general sued Amazon over marketplace practices, and that case is still unresolved.
2024Flipkart
Raises about $1 billion in a Walmart-led round including Google at a roughly $36 billion valuation; launches Flipkart Minutes quick commerce in August.
2025Amazon
One Millionth Robot and Project Rainier
Amazon deployed its one millionth robot in mid-2025 across more than 300 facilities and released the DeepFleet AI model to route them. In October 2025 AWS brought Project Rainier, a cluster of roughly 500,000 Trainium2 chips built with Anthropic, fully online.
2025Amazon
FTC Prime Settlement and the Amazon Leo Rebrand
Amazon agreed in September 2025 to pay $2.5 billion to settle the FTC's Prime enrollment case, $1 billion in civil penalties plus $1.5 billion in customer refunds.
2025Flipkart
Flipkart India reports FY2025 revenue of ~$9.6 billion (₹82,787 crore) (+17.3%) and a ~$602 million (₹5,189 crore) loss; marketplace arm Flipkart Internet cuts its loss 37%.
2026Amazon
Record FY2025 Results and 30,000 Corporate Cuts
Amazon reported FY2025 net sales of $716.9 billion, operating income of $80.0 billion, and net income of $77.7 billion. In January 2026 it cut about 16,000 corporate roles, following 14,000 in October 2025.
2026Flipkart
Completes reverse flip of its holding company from Singapore to India in March; a July employee buyback values Flipkart at about $38.2 billion as it prepares for an Indian IPO.
Acquisitions
Amazon
- One Medical2023$3.9B
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer2022$8.4B
- Ring2018Undisclosed
- PillPack2018$753M
- Whole Foods Market2017$13.7B
- Twitch Interactive2014$970M
Flipkart
- Cleartrip2021$40M
- eBay India2017Undisclosed
- Jabong2016$70M
- Myntra2014$300M
Questions about Amazon vs Flipkart
Who is the CEO of Amazon.com, Inc. and Flipkart?
Amazon.com, Inc. is led by Andy Jassy and Flipkart is led by Kalyan Krishnamurthy. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Amazon.com, Inc. founded vs Flipkart?
Amazon.com, Inc. was founded in 1994 — 13 years before Flipkart, which was founded in 2007. Amazon.com, Inc.'s longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Flipkart.
How many employees does Amazon.com, Inc. have compared to Flipkart?
Amazon.com, Inc. employs approximately 1,576,000 people, while Flipkart employs approximately 45,000. Amazon.com, Inc. has the larger workforce at 1,576,000 employees, compared to Flipkart's 45,000. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are Amazon.com, Inc. and Flipkart headquartered?
Amazon.com, Inc. is headquartered in United States and Flipkart is headquartered in India. Their different home markets mean they may face different regulatory frameworks, tax regimes, and currency exposure.
Who founded Amazon.com, Inc. and Flipkart?
Amazon.com, Inc. was founded by Jeffrey Preston Bezos. Flipkart was founded by Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal.
Which company has a longer operating history — Amazon.com, Inc. or Flipkart?
Amazon.com, Inc. has been operating for approximately 32 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Flipkart has been in operation for around 19 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Amazon vs Flipkart overview