Under its accelerator programme, Flipkart Leap Ahead, Flipkart Ventures, the $100 million venture capital arm of the e-commerce company, announced that it would invest in six startups.
Among them are the startup Dopplr, which focuses on the metaverse, the insurtech firm Livwell, the logistics startup LogisticsNow, NeuroPixel.AI, robotic fulfilment startup Rightbot Technologies, and e-commerce seller-enablement venture Sellerapp.
Flipkart will make an equity investment of up to $500,000 in the selected startups, and Bain & Company will design a mentorship programme for them.
According to the company, entrepreneurs participating in the mentorship programme will have sessions with Flipkart leaders in business, products, technology, and finance. In addition, the startups will present their ideas to potential investors at the end of the programme.
Following a selection procedure that included multiple rounds of evaluation by executives at Flipkart and Flipkart Ventures, the startups were selected.
“Through this endeavour, we aim to be a catalyst in the growing startup community by continuing to expand our programme each year and presenting growth opportunities to emerging entrepreneurs,” said Ravi Iyer, senior vice-president, and head, of corporate development at Flipkart.
Eight startups that presented their business plans to investors and raised funding made up the first cohort of the Flipkart Leap Ahead programme, which graduated in July 2021. ANS Commerce, a seller e-commerce SaaS company, Entropik Tech, a fintech company focused on investments, and others were part of the cohort.
Later, in April of this year, Flipkart acquired ANS Commerce.
Like Flipkart, Amazon has a $250 million venture capital arm called Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund. It funds entrepreneurs that are digitising SMBs and making advances in agriculture and healthcare.
Amazon has made multiple startup investments, including a $40 million investment in the fintech startup Smallcase in August 2021 and a $12 million investment in the digital therapeutic startup Fitterfly most recently.
