Facebook plans to support small and medium business start-ups in India

To tap growth in small and medium businesses in India, Facebook is nurturing start-ups for innovations by providing the required training, technology and mentoring. The start-ups to which the social media giant is giving support are café chains, travel commerce firms, female wellness brands, consumer electronics start-ups.

On Thursday, Facebook issued a statement announcing that in collaboration with the venture capital SAIF Partners, it is going to support small and medium businesses (SMBs) and entrepreneurship to enable their growth in the country. Partnership with SAIF is part of Facebook’s VC Brand Incubator Program, launched to foster the growth of the SMB sector in June.

Since its launch, the VC Brand Incubator Programme has collaborated with three VC funds – SAIF Partners, Fireside Ventures, Sauce.VC. As per the recent data available, Facebook, in collaboration with these three VC funds have mentored around 75 brands at different stages of their growth journey.

Archana Vohra, director, small and medium businesses at Facebook India stated, “Our vast experience with SMBs tells us that strong digital skills and timely guidance can help them succeed and increase profits quickly. Facebook has consistently delivered business results for SMBs and through the VC Brand Incubator Program and the latest partnership with SAIF Partners we’ve deepened our commitment to the growth of small businesses and entrepreneurship in India.”

SAIF has already invested in some of the successful start-ups in India such as Paytm, MakeMyTrip, BookMyShow and Justdial.com. “We believe that programs like the VC Brand Incubator will go a long way in helping early-stage consumer-focused companies avoid common mistakes, enabling them to create differentiated brand awareness on digital platforms in the most efficient manner,” says managing director, SAIF Partners, Deepak Gaur.

As many experts believe, entrepreneurship at SMBs can be a real solution for poverty issues occurring across the world. Giants such as Facebook can help SMBs flourish successfully across India, which can result in achieving the economic goals of the country.