Flipkart, India’s biggest ecommerce giant, is reportedly eyeing deep technology investments in Silicon Valley. To ramp up their technology infrastructure, the online retailer company may invest over $25 million in at least one Silicon Valley based artificial intelligence (AI) startup.
The Economic Times reported, according to sources close to the matter, Flipkart is looking at tech acquisitions in the Valley because differentiated tech is a new focus area for the company. The sources further added, “The idea is to bring these Indian tech founders from the US who can bring deep technology capabilities that don’t exist in India.”
This investment in an AI based tech startup will help Flipkart play catch up with its global rival Amazon, India. The sources claim Flipkart is currently lagging behind Amazon in terms of technology by almost 4 to 5 years. Meanwhile, Amazon has more people in its technology division globally, making it possible for the company to stay ahead of its competition.
In December last year, Flipkart’s co founder Sachin Bansal said AI would be the etailer’s key focus area this year as it looks to make acquisitions around this technology. Flipkart has been planning to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to build AI and machine learning (ML) solutions. These technologies will be used to enhance shopper experience and shortening delivery times, among others.
Artificial Intelligence and machine learning have become the latest global trend used by startups to enhance the consumer experience, build better infrastructure and target niche audiences. According to Sachin Bansal, Flipkart has already started recruiting AI professionals and partnering with hardware based companies for this purpose. In September last year, sources also revealed technology giant Microsoft invested close to $ 200 million in the ecommerce firm to enhance their AI and machine learning capabilities. In addition to this investment, Flipkart is also partnered with Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, Azure. However, Flipkart still operates on its own private cloud infrastructure, while the Microsoft Azure cloud services are yet to be implemented.