Flipkart’s venture investing arm, Flipkart Ventures, is investing in five early-stage startups as part of its accelerator program – Flipkart Leap Ahead (FLA). Now in its second year, the program aims to foster innovation and nurture entrepreneurship by providing entrepreneurs with the tools they need to succeed in their domain, and also positively impact the ecosystems in which they operate.
The startups that will receive equity based funding are Algomage, Castler, FlexifyMe, NimbleBox.ai, and ReCircle. These five startups are building capabilities across a wide array of solutions, each catering to a unique problem statement. This includes Gen AI and ML powered solutions, digital escrow banking stack and circular economy.
These selected startups will receive mentorship for growth and innovation, with equity-based investments ranging from $250k to $500k. Additionally, they will be provided support in achieving product-market fit, laying the grounds for a scalable architecture, and building cohesive teams.
Lubna Ahmed, Head of Flipkart Ventures, said, “Flipkart has always been at the forefront of empowering the startup ecosystem in India. We are excited to witness the transformative journey of startups in India as they harness Flipkart’s resources and guidance to bring their innovative ideas to life. We are pleased that many startups from last year’s cohort have been able to secure successful investor funding, cultivate new business relationships and implement pilot projects to support the ecosystem. This program is a testament to Flipkart’s commitment to supporting India’s vibrant startup ecosystem that is playing a pivotal role in the country’s digital journey.”
More about the startups:
Algomage – Founded by Anand Rathi in 2021, Algomage automates end to end image post production (culling, editing and sharing) using machine learning. It helps photographers cut down processing time and helps sponsors at live events achieve greater visibility via branded image delivery.
Castler – Founded by Vineet Singh and Dinesh Kumar in 2020, Castler digitizes escrow banking to offer a user-friendly, efficient, and secure experience for managing payments and settlement. It combines the functions of an escrow service, a trusteeship service, and transaction management tools to provide a comprehensive solution for managing escrow transactions.
FlexifyMe – Founded by Manjeet Singh and Amit Bhayani in 2021, Flexifyme is an AI enabled physiotherapy platform to address long term care for musculoskeletal disorders. The platform uses a mix of traditional healing and AI-led dynamic posture analysis to customize plans and track continuous progress.
NimbleBox.ai – Founded by Anshuman Pandey, Naman Maheshwari and Rohan Kumar, ChatNBX (chat.nbox.ai) by NimbleBox.ai is a managed service to build generative AI applications. The platform integrates with enterprises’ cloud accounts as well as on-prem, hosting commercially usable models for tailored use-cases across industries.
ReCircle – Founded by Rahul Nainani and Gurashish Sahni, Recircle is a clean-tech startup with a mission to create a circular economy by diverting waste away from landfills and oceans. It offers comprehensive end-to-end tech-led services for ethical circularity in waste management.
Under Flipkart’s Leap Ahead program the selected startups undergo a curated program formulated to prepare them for accelerated scaling and expansion while also helping them leverage Flipkart’s collective expertise and connections.
More information about the program is available at https://www.flipkartleap.com/#leap-ahead