Flipkart announced the launch of the Fourth edition of its cohort focused on the high-tech startup ecosystem in Israel.
Flipkart Leap Innovation Network (FLIN), under its accelerator program LEAP, provides opportunity to tech startups to run real-world pilots through technology partnerships and enables access to Flipkart’s market footprint.
More information on Flipkart Leap Innovation Network is available www.flipkartleap.com.
Flipkart Leap Ahead will invest in pre-seed and seed stage startups across varied sectors, which have disruptive and innovative business models.
Early stage startups working in the sectors such as Fintech, Health-tech, Logistics / Supply Chain, AI/ML, Consumer Tech, (Social / Content / New Ecom models), Retail SaaS and Sustainability, can apply to this program.
Flipkart Leap Ahead is designed to identify promising early stage technology startups which have the potential to disrupt the digital ecosystem. Flipkart provides equity based funding of up to $500K and growth acceleration.
This program will be the cornerstone of seed-stage investments made by Flipkart Ventures, the $100 million venture fund in 2022 by Flipkart. The accelerator will invest in seed to Seed to Series A startups, with a cheque size of $200K – $500K.
Flipkart, owned by the US-based ecommerce major Walmart, has launched the startup accelerator program in January 2022 to create a community of entrepreneurs and foster the exchange of innovation with tech startups.
Adi Lev, CEO of Flipkart Israel, said: “Joining the Flipkart Leap Innovation Network offers startups at various stages – from early ventures to growth-phase companies – a chance to make a significant leap forward.”
Jeyandran Venugopal, Chief Product and Technology Officer, said: “Through these partnerships between India and Israel, we aim to fuel new business models and foster a culture of innovation, building the next generation of tech talent and addressing real-world problems.”
The Flipkart Leap Innovation Network is designed to engage with startups through commercial partnerships in Flipkart’s areas of interest. The selected startups will deploy their solutions via paid pilots on Flipkart, and if successful – will have the opportunity to scale up to a business partnership.
Startups from the first and second cohorts such as Ashield, ElixiaTech, Intelliwings, TryNDBuy, Anagog, Speedsize – have concluded pilots. A few startups are in the process of scaling up their offerings across Flipkart.
Flipkart’s digital commerce entities include Flipkart, Myntra, Flipkart Wholesale, Flipkart Health+, and Cleartrip.
Flipkart has a registered user base of more than 500 million. Flipkart’s marketplace offers over 150 million products across 80+ categories. It has over 1.4 million sellers on the platform, including Shopsy sellers.
Flipkart began operations in Israel in 2018 after acquiring Upstream Commerce, a company specializing in real-time competitive pricing and market trend analysis. Flipkart’s Israel Development and Innovation Center now spearheads Flipkart’s efforts in AI and algorithmics. The development center employs 100 people, half of whom are based in Israel and the rest in India and Ukraine.
