Social-media giant Facebook has launched its drive to tap start-ups and groom them. To begin with, it is focussing on Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality spaces.

In association with tech incubator T-Hub here, Facebook has announced Indian Innovation Hub Accelerator. The 12-week cohort, which will start in April, will handhold start-ups in a variety of AR/VR products and solutions.

“We will pick 8-10 start-ups to begin with. We will like to contribute to the start-up ecosystem,” said Satyajeet Singh, Head, Platform Partnerships, Facebook India and South Asia.

Ahead of launching the hub, Facebook had rented space at T-Hub to provide technology solutions to the start-ups that will come on board. T-Hub Chief Executive Officer Jay Krishnan said the accelerator was open for start-ups that were working on AR/VR applications in areas such as health tech, industrial manufacturing, education, corporate learning, gaming and entertainment, and video analytics.

“The AR/VR market in the country is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 76 per cent in the next five years. We are building an ecosystem by roping in firms such as Facebook to groom start-ups to address local challenges,” he said. There are 1,500 start-ups in the world working in the AR/VR space, including 100 in India.