Flipkart on Monday announced to expand of its flagship startup accelerator program ‘Leap’ into two new programs to further help and nurture select startups in India.
The initiative will now evolve into two new programs — Flipkart Leap Ahead (FLA) and Flipkart Leap Innovation Network (FLIN).
Flipkart Leap Ahead will invest in seed-stage startups at the cutting edge of the latest technology across varied sectors, which have disruptive business models and are innovating in areas that are a priority for the Flipkart group.
The company said in a statement that the Flipkart Leap Innovation Network program has been designed to enable a broader set of start-ups to engage with Flipkart’s product and tech teams.
“With dedicated tracks for early-stage and growth-stage startups, this cohort will now expand its benefits to a much wider pool of entrepreneurs who are solving for Digital India,” said Ravi Iyer, Senior Vice President and Head, Corporate Development, Flipkart.
The Flipkart Leap Innovation Network aims to identify startups across sectors with a broad focus on fintech, supply chain, logistics, SaaS (focused on consumer tech), alternate commerce, B2B, social, health tech, agritech, and edtech, among others.
A select set of startups will also get the opportunity to execute pilots and forge commercial partnerships with Flipkart.
With the introduction of these programs, the startup ecosystem will be able to access end-to-end partnerships with Flipkart across their growth stages, said the company.
The Flipkart Leap Ahead program will be the cornerstone of seed-stage investments made by Flipkart Ventures, the company’s $100 million venture fund announced earlier last year.
The Flipkart Leap program graduated its first cohort in July 2021 with eight startups, who have successfully raised further funding/investment post their selection in the program.
“In our journey to reach the next 200 million customers, we will look out for start-ups that have innovative solutions that cater to the dynamic needs of our country and help them scale their vision with us,” said Jeyandran Venugopal, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Flipkart.
The application for Flipkart Leap Ahead and Flipkart Leap Innovation Network programs are open till February 28.
