Startups thrive on the ability to move fast and be innovative and audacious. However, startups often face challenges on many fronts such as financing, hiring, infrastructure, compliance, visibility, and marketing know-how. They can benefit immensely from the support and mentorship of established companies or experienced industry professionals.
After wrapping up a successful cohort 1 of Flipkart Leap in 2020, the home grown e-commerce company is now looking to enable startups and expand its benefits to a much wider pool of entrepreneurs with mentorship and funding through Flipkart Leap Ahead and Flipkart Leap Innovation Network.
Flipkart Leap Ahead (FLA), Equity investments in early stage startups
The FLA programme will be the cornerstone program for seed-stage investments and will invest in early stage startups, with a cheque size of $150K – $500K.
Early-stage startups working across sectors like social/content, new e-com categories, fintech, healthtech, gaming, technology (consumer tech / SaaS), B2B/SME, agritech, edtech, and logistics/supply chain, can apply and benefit from the programme.
Shortlisted startups will have access to a world class curriculum designed by Bain & Co that is customised to the needs of the selected startups, thereby contributing to the startup ecosystem. The curriculum spread over 16 weeks will cover all aspects ranging from business, product, tech and operations, that are required for a startup to scale. The programme will culminate in a demo-day with invite-only VCs to enable future rounds of funding.
Leap Ahead will also have a mentor board that comprises senior Flipkart leaders, some of whom have been ex-founders of successful startups and have decades of experience in their respective functions. The shortlisted startups will have an opportunity to engage one on one with the mentors to jointly brainstorm on their challenges.
Here is a look at the Mentor Board
Leap Ahead will also facilitate connections within the Flipkart ecosystem and the wider investor community for the selected startups. Applications for this cohort based program are open till 7th March 2022.
Flipkart Leap Innovation Network (FLIN), Providing Partnership Opportunities
The Flipkart Leap Innovation Network programme has been designed to enable a broader set of start-ups to engage with Flipkart’s product and tech teams. The Flipkart Leap Innovation Network will look at a wider pool of mature startups that have a viable product that solves problems across themes such as - rethinking supply chain, building retail tech, accelerating digital commerce, future of fashion, and redefining customer experience.
The selected startups will be able to validate their products, execute pilots and forge commercial partnerships with Flipkart. FLIN aims to turbocharge their future growth by validating their solution at Flipkart’s scale and receiving relevant feedback on product strategy from Flipkart’s product teams.
FLIN also offers multiple expert talks by Flipkart product and tech leaders during the course of engagement. In addition, the startups will also benefit from a strong peer to peer network and learning that the program facilitates.
Flipkart Leap: A flashback
Launched in August 2020, Flipkart Leap, the startup accelerator programme by Flipkart, gained an overwhelming response from across the country. Designed to redefine the digital landscape of the country, Cohort 1 saw the coming together of eight selected startups covering the gamut of consumer internet and technology space. These startups engaged in pilots with Flipkart across the spectrum.
Post a rigorous 16-week programme that included hands-on workshops, one-on-one mentor sessions, masterclasses from industry experts, and networking events, some of these startups got an opportunity to implement pilots with Flipkart and Myntra, with the successful ones going on to scale their solutions.
"To change the digital landscape and be part of Cohort 2, register today. Also, to know more details of the program, log in at https://www.flipkartleap.com/. Applications are open till 7th March, 2022."
Come, and be a part of the change!