Flipkart launches programme to mentor startups

Bengaluru: Flipkart on Monday announced the launch of ‘Flipkart Leap’—the company’s first startup accelerator programme, whereby the ecommerce giant will identify B2C and B2B startups and help them scale through an “intensive” 16-week virtual programme.

The company said in a statement that the call for entries has begun today.

Throughout the programme, leaders of Flipkart’s business, operations, and product and technology divisions will mentor the selected startups and share with them best practices norms. In addition, there will be master classes hosted by industry experts, the statement said.

The programme aims at providing the tools, framework, knowledge and ecosystem to help startups create “world-class value-driven” products by supporting them in building market-ready solutions, Flipkart said.

Flipkart Leap has identified five themes to shortlist relevant high-potential startups—Design & Make for India, Innovation in Digital Commerce, Technologies to Empower the Retail Ecosystem, Supply Chain Management & Logistics and Enabling Relevant Deep Tech applications. 

“These themes have been identified to tap into the most innovative solutions in the technology and consumer internet space (that are) uniquely built for Indian consumers,” the statement said.

The focus is on bringing digitisation and tech advancement in these thematic areas, including (funding) any startups that will be working on disruptive solutions that have the potential to transform the landscape of e-commerce in the next five years, the statement said.