Flipkart veteran building unified shopper identity across stores

Flash, an early-stage startup established by an e-commerce veteran to target frequent online shoppers, bagged $5.8 million in seed capital to defy a tough global funding climate.
 

The Indian startup created by engineer Ranjith Boyanapalli, a former executive at Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart, raised the funds from backers including Global Founders Capital Management and angel investors such as Binny Bansal and Sujeet Kumar.

Flash is creating a digital identity that power shoppers can use across retail sites. The service seeks to make order processing, communication with sellers and the use of rewards programs easier for frequent shoppers. The company will use the seed-round capital to develop the product, hire and expand globally.

“Power shoppers who shop online, order food or groceries as many as 400 times a year have a very broken experience, devoid of synergy,” Boyanapalli, 41, said in a video interview.

Users will be able to track and manage their past and current orders with various services in one location. Flash’s service will debut in India and expand to the US and Europe within 18 months.

The startup is targeting India’s 25 million frequent shoppers who account for over two-thirds of online-retail revenue, and it predicts the number of those heavy users to rise to 65 million by 2030.

India had the world’s third-largest online-shopper base of nearly 190 million at the end of 2021 and this number is set to triple to 650 million by 2030, Flash said in a release.