India’s investment promotion and facilitation agency Invest India has partnered with WhatsApp for the WhatsApp Startup Challenge.
WhatsApp will invest quarter of a million dollars as seed funding in the top 5 winners of the ‘WhatsApp Startup Challenge’ and an additional $250,000 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.
Invest India is working with WhatsApp to drive awareness about its business tools in around 15 states impacting over 60,000 businesses through programs like the Startup India ‘Yatra’ program and other in-person training events.
Speaking on the occasion Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, said that WhatsApp was a startup that had grown into a community and is an example of how an idea can grow to become an integral part of our day to day life. The Minister went on to say that Indian startups, in order to be successful have to learn to convert an idea into a business plan. He further said that the Startup community is the future of India and will be the platform through which the millions of youth of this country will be gainfully employed.
Commenting on the partnership, Chris Daniels, Vice President, WhatsApp said that India has a great ecosystem of startups which are making huge impact in all sectors of the Indian economy. Daniels further said that small and medium businesses are the back bone of India’s economy, employing 100 million people and contributing a 3rd India’s GDP. “WhatsApp cares deeply about helping businesses connect with customers and grow. The more opportunities that are given the more startups will become engines of India’s economic growth,” he said.
Over the last 2 years there are over 13,000 startups registered with the Startup India program that are spread across 448 districts covering all 29 States and 6 Union Territories.
