Flipkart - A homegrown, $25 billion e-commerce company has announced its first-ever startup accelerator programme in India - Flipkart Leap, to mentor B2B and B2C startups through a 16-week long initiative. Flipkart also said that it could look at the possibility of funding these startups, besides helping them pitch their business models to investors, entrepreneurs and other ecosystem players on the completion of the programme. The selected startups will also be provided with an equity-free grant of $25,000.
“With the help of technology and deep industry expertise of Flipkart’s top-notch mentors, startups will gather insights and learnings to stay competitive in the dynamic technology market. Flipkart Leap has identified five themes to shortlist relevant high-potential startups. These include Design & Make for India, Innovation in Digital Commerce, Technologies to Empower the Retail Ecosystem, Supply Chain Management & Logistics and Enabling Relevant Deep Tech applications,” Bengaluru headquartered e-tailer said in a statement.
In 2019, Walmart-backed Flipkart also launched its fund in India to back early-stage startups based on technology like AI, voice assistant etc in order to bring millions of consumers in India’s tier II, III cities under the digital fold and at the same time help expand its footprints.
Flipkart earlier acquired digital payments startup, PhonePe, online fashion e-tailer -Myntra, after-sales service providers- Jeeves among various startups. Last year, the e-commerce giant led a $60 million funding round in logistics firm, Shadowfax Technologies.
“The journey for Flipkart, from its launch to becoming one of the most-loved homegrown brands, has been a true harbinger of the potential of the startup ecosystem in India. With innovations and disruptions in the field of technology coming about each day, we want to be at the forefront of driving scalability and helping these startups bring value to the industry as well as Indian consumers. Flipkart Leap is aimed at unlocking this potential and nurturing new ideas that bring innovation, curiosity and unconventionality to the local entrepreneurial ecosystem while boosting the government’s ‘Start-Up India’ initiative,” Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Chief Executive Officer, Flipkart Group said.
The programme has been designed by Flipkart’s Product Strategy & Deployment team led by Naren Ravula. The e-commerce firm said that the startups applying for Flipkart Leap should be based out of India and should have a working prototype with early adoption metrics. Post the completion of the program, the final participants of Flipkart Leap will pitch their successful model to investors, corporates and other ecosystem players on the demo-day and may also be considered for funding by Flipkart, it added.