Flipkart acquires Israel-based company Upstream Commerce

Online retailer Flipkart has now turned overseas to make tech acquisitions. The homegrown player has acquired an Israel-based analytics company Upstream Commerce in a bid to deliver real-time pricing and product analytics to their sellers, said the company today.

This comes just a month after Flipkart acquired AI-led speech recognition startup Liv.ai, when CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy had said that the ecommerce firm is scouting for companies with a “strong tech team” that are solving an “India-specific problem.”

Post the buyout of the 20-member Upstream Commerce team, while a part of Flipkart, will continue to work out of Israel. This will also make Israel one of Flipkart’s global centers for future data science work.

“With the Upstream acquisition, we will now have tech and talent presence across Asia, US and Israel, some of the key global hubs for innovation,” said Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy. Flipkart already has an office in California to tap into the tech talent in the Bay Area.
Upstream Commerce, which was backed by YL Ventures since its inception to acquisition, builds cloud-based, automated competitive pricing and product analysis solutions, which helps sellers optimize their product assortment and pricing strategies and find gaps in the market to serve customers better.

“The company uses data science and analytics to provide insights to ecommerce platforms across the globe,” said Anil Goteti, head of marketplace at Flipkart. “We believe this acquisition will strengthen our already existing capabilities of providing insights to our sellers on both selection and pricing.”

The integration of this technology onto the Flipkart platform is expected to take place in the next few months. Flipkart recently a Bengaluru-based AI-led speech recognition Liv.ai which will eventually allow Flipkart users to engage with the platform using ‘voice’ in multiple languages, which opens opportunities for the online retailer to tap into tier 2 and beyond customers. The same technology will also be integrated with Flipkart’s seller platform and supply chain platform, among others.

Flipkart recently completed its deal with US retail giant Walmart, post which the ecommerce marketplace received an infusion of Rs 3,463 crore.