Flipkart Minutes’ race against the quick commerce clock

2024 has been a year of change for Flipkart. It saw a churn of senior executives at the company, with the e-commerce giant taking a completely new direction. One that CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy was previously adamant would never work out—quick commerce.

“Flipkart, especially Kalyan (Krishnamurthy), was never a believer in quick commerce. He was of the view that it was a balance between time and selection and quality which will work,” said a former senior executive at Flipkart aware of developments at the company. “This year, however, Flipkart Minutes, the company’s quick commerce initiative, has been the most high-priority project in Flipkart.”

According to the executive quoted above and others The CapTable spoke with, Flipkart’s senior management changed its mind following the successful expansion by quick commerce players into categories beyond grocery—chiefly, electronics—which have been Flipkart’s forte. That they appear to be doing so profitably only added urgency to Flipkart’s response. “This is a very big threat to Flipkart,” said the former executive.

For the past few months, the company has raced against time to kickstart Flipkart Minutes. After getting a team together in April, the company slowly rolled out the service to employees around its headquarters in Bellandur, Bengaluru, in July. Orders were handled by a single dark store in the area.