Ecommerce major Flipkart has partnered with Ethereum Layer-2 scaling startup Polygon Companies to accelerate the adoption of Web3 India. As part of the partnership, the companies will set up ‘Blockchain-eCommerce Centre of Excellence’ (CoE) which will work on research and development in the areas of Web3 and Metaverse commerce use-cases in the country.
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 Web3 in general.”
Through Flipkart Labs, the e-commerce major has been piloting with Web3 initiatives over the past year. Earlier this year, it launched FireDrops, an NFT platform for brands. During the festive sale, Flipkart piloted its metaverse – called Flipverse.
Naren Ravula, VP, Head of Product Strategy at Flipkart and Head of Flipkart Labs, said, “The partnership brings expertise from the world 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.”
Flipkart partners with Polygon:-
The announcement comes on the heels of Flipkart’s October foray into the metaverse with eDAO, a Polygon-incubated venture. The “Flipverse” reoriented the top-down relationship between consumers and brands, encouraging instead new kinds of engagement and use cases through NFTs that saw community exploration.
And it was just the latest in Flipkart’s Web3 ventures: FireDrops is a user-friendly NFT platform that syncs creators, brands, and consumers in order to explore new ways of finding, building, and maintaining community by experiencing the multifaceted value of NFTs.
A number of major brands from Adidas and Adobe to Robinhood and Stripe have already selected Polygon as their entry point to Web3. By joining this vibrant ecosystem, Flipkart is future-proofing its investment in blockchain. Recent breakthroughs, like Polygon’s zkEVM scaling solution, ensure that the next iteration of the Web can accommodate the world.
“Polygon is the go-to blockchain for the world’s biggest companies entering Web3. Our mission is to bring the next billion users to Web3, so we are excited to partner with Flipkart to create the Blockchain-eCommerce Centre of Excellence,” said Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon. “We know first-hand the wealth of talent that exists in India. This partnership will create more opportunities, drive research and development, and further cement India’s position as a Web3 powerhouse. We see the Centre of Excellence as a natural step towards the evolution of eCommerce globally.”
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