Flipkart picks up strategic minority stake in digital mapping company MapmyIndia

India's largest ecommerce marketplace Flipkart has picked up a minority stake in CE Info Systems Pvt. Ltd, which owns digital mapping business MapmyIndia as it looks to boost its supply chain. Details of transaction were not disclosed, except that MapmyIndia's early financial investors Nexus Venture Partners and Lightbox Ventures will exit the company with this deal.

The talks for the deal, now termed as "strategic" by Flipkart, was first reported by Economic Times in its edition dated September 9

"This will extend a new layer of capability to Flipkart's existing supply chain and logistics operations, making customer experience timely and hassle free," said a statement.

Flipkart, which is targeting $10 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) by March 2016, plans to deploy location intelligence capabilities from MapmyIndia across its logistics network to strengthen its first-mile pickup and last mile delivery operations. The Bengaluru-based e-tailer also plans to leverage MapmyIndia's data for better address verification, real-time shipment tracking, facility mapping and theft minimization.

"With this strategic investment, we are taking another concrete step toward transforming the supply chain ecosystem in India, making technology and information the driver of our supply chain and logistics solutions," said Binny Bansal, COO and Co-founder, Flipkart. "This partnership is a strategic fit that gives us a sustainable competitive advantage."

MapmyIndia said it will continue to serve all consumers and enterprises across industries with its full range of products.

MapmyIndia has raised around $30 million in funding from venture capital investors like Lightbox Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures besides Japanese mapping company Zenrin. The company was founded in 1992 by husband wife duo Rakesh Verma and Rashmi Verma.

"MapmyIndia's mission is to make the world better through maps and location technologies. We have seen extremely strong demand for our map and location products and solutions from leading e-commerce players, all automotive OEMs and progressive government agencies, and we remain committed to helping all customers across industries benefit from our maps and location technologies," said Verma in a statement.

(Image credit: BCCL)