According to recent news by Livemint, online marketplace Flipkart Ltd is in talks to invest in four firms including maps provider MapmyIndia, to improve its supply chain efficiency.
The Bengaluru-based company is close to buying a minority stake in MapmyIndia (promoted by CE Info Systems Pvt. Ltd), the people cited above said. MapmyIndia will help Flipkart with mapping data and vehicle tracking services as the e-commerce firm goes deeper into the hinterland to deliver smartphones, apparel and other products to customers.
Flipkart is betting that MapmyIndia’s products will also help its delivery team in route optimization: picking the most suitable routes and cutting the time taken to deliver products to multiple customers on a given day, the people above said. With accurate mapping and pin code data, the company’s delivery executives can potentially deliver more products in the same time, compared with what they do currently.
The company is expected to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on building warehouses and expanding its delivery force over the next two-three years. Its supply chain business is run by co-founder and chief operating officer Binny Bansal.
