Flipkart launches startup accelerator Flipkart Leap in India

Leading e-commerce firm Flipkart on Monday (August 10) announced the launch of the startup accelerator programme Flipkart Leap in India.

Flipkart is inviting B2C and B2B startups and offers to mentor them via 16-week virtual training from its experts in business, operations, product, and technology.

Walmart-owned company has picked five key focus areas for Flipkart Leap start-up accelerator, it includes design and make for India. It should be related to consumer and technology products, also with a focus on transforming off-line sectors such as Agriculture, healthcare, and others online and also enable next 500 million users (in tier-2 and tier-3) areas to digital natives, the company said.

Other focus areas of Flipkart Leap include deep tech applications such as Blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), edge devices, Big data, innovation in digital commerce, technologies to empower the retail ecosystem and also supply chain management, and logistics.

Only the local startups based out of India are eligible to apply for Flipkart Leap. They should have a working prototype with early adoption metrics. After the completion of the programme, 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.

“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,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Chief Executive Officer, Flipkart Group.

Flipkart Leap will be managed by Flipkart’s Product Strategy & Deployment team led by Naren Ravula. It is a 16-week program curated in partnership with Zinnov and the successful team with market-ready innovative solutions can win an equity-free grant of $25,000. Interested startups can register for Flipkart Leap (here).

In the past, Google and Apple have launched startup accelerators in India and continue to operate even today. They invite startup founders in batches every year and offer mentorship.

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Apple usually invites budding app creators and help them refine the application for better user experience and also help monetise the business.

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