Founder of Ping, Vartika Bansal

Vartika Bansal is the founder of Ping, which is a community-first e-commerce network that connects local entrepreneurs and home-based company owners with members in housing societies.
Vartika is a Stanford Graduate School of Business and IIT Bombay alumni with past on-the-ground experience creating and scaling business verticals at Uber, OYO, and SunEdison, as well as breaking ground for solar projects in Asia and Africa.

Vartika had the concept for this project while traveling around the country in 2019. She observed various makers, farmers, or small vendors communicating with residents of residential complexes via WhatsApp groups to market their wares. Instead of the typical one-way online shopping experience, shoppers were able to engage in two-way dialogue with these farmers or craftsmen, asking them a variety of inquiries.
She was inspired by the pandemic, the resulting lockdowns, and the growth in WhatsApp purchasing. She launched Ping, a social commerce network that links small vendors and customers, in July 2020. It collects all of the app’s local commerce message groups and powers the finding of the most reliable and verified makers in residential areas.

With over 400 active residential communities on its platform and aspirations to build over 3,000 more, Ping is currently operating in four metro cities: Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurugram, and Hyderabad. Among the creators are more than 500 firms and people from a variety of industries, including baked foods, agricultural produce, pet supplies, home decor, and others.
Her goal with Ping is to support this trend by creating an effective, conversational community platform that connects local farmers, craftspeople, and producers with local residents. She wants Ping to be at the forefront of catalyzing local entrepreneurship by enabling SMEs to reach a bigger pool of new and returning clients.