Flipkart has announced their new startup accelerator program called ‘Flipkart Leap’ to help new firms get off to a good start. Walmart-owned company says this will contribute to India’s growing entrepreneurial ecosystem that is contributing to the goal of “Start Up India”.

Flipkart Leap is a 16-week virtual program that allows startups to grow. It provides them with an equity-free grant of $25,000 and additional support. As a mentor for the accelerator program, Flipkart will share best-practices and host master classes from industry experts to teach entrepreneurs how to become successful.

Businesses looking to apply for the Flipkart Leap should be based in India and have a working prototype that displays early adoption metrics. Upon completion of the program, the team at Flipkart Leap will present their most successful ideas to investors, corporates, and other players in the ecosystem on Demo Day. Flipkart might also consider funding some startups from their $100 million fund that they manage internally.

Flipkart used to offer co-working spaces, but will now do it virtually because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Startups are shortlisted according to the five themes that have been identified by Flipkart Leap. These include design and make for India, innovation in digital commerce, and technologies to empower the retail ecosystem. The two other areas are supply chain management and logistics, along with the development of deep tech applications that they uniquely build for all kinds of different projects in the technology and consumer internet space.

The main focus of these startups is on digitizing and advancing technologies in a variety of different, relevant fields. Some examples of these tech-based solutions are the ones that are expected to revolutionize e-commerce in the next five years.

There are 2-3 new Indian tech startups being created every day. This is a significant growth from the last year and is great news for the country. Growing business support and ethical regulations are helping the startup environment to catch up with the demands of the next billion potential customers, that is what Flipkart said.