New Delhi: In an effort to fuel the growth of India’s entrepreneurial and small business community, Invest India through its flagship initiative Startup India has partnered with WhatsApp on a program that focuses on the proliferation of start-ups, promoting economic growth and generating employment opportunities in India.
Dedicated to driving success and enhancing grassroots innovation, WhatsApp will invest quarter of a million dollars as seed funding to the top 5 winners of the ‘WhatsApp StartUp Challenge’ and an additional 250,000 dollar will be directed to a select few from the entrepreneurial community to promote their WhatsApp business number on Facebook and drive discovery of their businesses. This way customers will be able to find the business and start talking to them on that WhatsApp number.
Commenting on the partnership, Deepak Bagla, CEO & MD, Invest India said,
“India adds over 3 new start-ups a day, ranking it amongst the top start-up nations in the world. A significant number of start-ups are spearheaded by women. In fact, women-led start-ups are increasing by over 100% per annum. We are committed towards developing the best ecosystem for the Indian start-up community and have undertaken multiple initiatives to make this happen.”
“The conversation between two buddies has become a mean of communication
That shows one should get inspiration from whatsapp. All the startups must understand do not scratch your head to much. You have to be patient,” Said Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce and Industry.
Commenting on the partnership, Chris Daniels, Vice President,
WhatsApp said, “WhatsApp cares deeply about helping businesses connect with customers and grow. We’re excited to work closely with Startup India by supporting entrepreneurs and start-ups to become engines of economic growth.Payments is another mode of communication. Payment will be another type of Communication and mode of Transaction. We are not trying to change the way people do business. We are trying to add tools to help people to do business.”
