Ecommerce behemoth Flipkart’s $100 million venture fund, Flipkart Ventures, will invest in the six firms it selected to participate in its Flipkart Leap Ahead accelerator program.
Through a curriculum created by Bain & Company, the program will provide early-stage entrepreneurs with mentoring to help them develop and expand. Leaders from Flipkart will interact with the chosen entrepreneurs over the course of 16 weeks to provide business, technology, product, and financial mentoring.
At the program’s conclusion, there will be a demo day when entrepreneurs can present to influential business people and possible investors. Flipkart would provide the participants with stock shares of up to US $500,000.
Dopplr, an automated catalog deeptech company, Livwell, an insurtech company, LogisticsNow, and NeuroPixel are among the firms chosen for the program. Rightbot Technologies, an AI-based robotics fulfilment firm, and the seller-enablement startup SellerApp.
With its inaugural batch of eight entrepreneurs graduating in July of last year, Flipkart Leap Ahead is now in its second season.
Binny and Sachin Bansal, who are brothers, launched Flipkart in 2007. In 2018, Walmart, a major US retailer, purchased Flipkart for US $16 billion. Flipkart has internalized and upped its goal IPO valuation to between US $60 billion and US $70 billion and expects to float in the US by 2023.
