Flipkart collaborates with Polygon to establish an R&D center for web3, metaverse use cases

• ByStartupStory     |    December 2, 2022

On December 2, Walmart-owned Flipkart announced a strategic alliance with Polygon to establish a Blockchain-eCommerce Center of Excellence (CoE) in India to work on research and development of Web3 and metaverse commerce use cases to expedite Web3 adoption.

Jeyandran Venugopal, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Flipkart, said, “With the COE, we look forward to working with Polygon and leveraging their expertise and technical know-how to successfully onboard users, not just to the value proposition of Web3 or Metaverse commerce but also to Web3 in general.”

Over the past year, the e-commerce giant has been testing Web3 ideas through Flipkart Labs. It launched FireDrops, an NFT platform for brands, earlier this year. Flipkart tested its metaverse, Flipverse, during the festive sale.

Naren Ravula, VP, Head of Product Strategy at Flipkart and Head of Flipkart Labs, said, “The partnership brings expertise from the worlds of e-commerce and blockchain and lays the foundation for innovation at a protocol, platform, and product-level for decentralized e-commerce in India, especially through brand collaborations and initiatives like 3D storefronts, novel NFT drop mechanisms, trustless standards for commerce, on-chain loyalty, and play-to-earn experiences.”

Web3 is billed as the future generation of the Internet and will decentralize apps via blockchain technology. This new industry is still dealing with difficulties, including laws, token volatility, and high taxation, among others.

Sandeep Nailwal, Co-Founder said, “Polygon’s mission is to bring the next billion users to Web3 and this partnership will pioneer research and development at the intersection of Web3 and experiential retail, which will advance adoption and impact in India and across the world. We see the Blockchain-eCommerce Center of Excellence as an engine for the evolution of e-commerce in the years to come.”

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