New Delhi, Stressing that Startup community was the future of India, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu on Wednesday announced that the country through its flagship initiative Startup India Hub has partnered with WhatsApp.
‘The Startup community was the future of India and will be the platform through which the millions of youth of this country will be gainfully employed,’ Mr Prabhu said.
‘Happy to announce the partnership between WhatsApp and Startup India to support businesses and startups across India through training and WhatsApp’s business products.A ‘WhatsApp Startup Challenge’ will also be organised with seed funding of 250,000 dollars for 5 winners, Mr Prabhu said in a Tweet.
In an effort to fuel the growth of India’s entrepreneurial and small business community, Startup India Hub has partnered with WhatsApp on a programme that focuses on the proliferation of startups, 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 five winners of the ‘WhatsApp Startup Challenge’ and an additional 250,000 dollars 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 also working with WhatsApp to drive awareness about its business tools in around 15 states impacting over 60,000 businesses in the coming months through tools such as Startup India ‘Yatra’ programme and other in-person training events.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Prabhu said,’ WhatsApp is a startup that has 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.Commenting on the partnership, WhatsApp Vice-President Chris Daniels said India has a great ecosystem of startups which are making huge impact in all sectors of the Indian economy.
Mr Daniels stated that small and medium businesses were the back bone of India’s economy, employing 100 million people and contributing to a third of 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.
Launched on January 16, 2016 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Startup India, set-up under Invest India, is a flagship initiative of the Government of India and is intended to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and Startups in the country that will drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.
In the past two years at the Startup India programme, there are over 13,000 startups registered with Startup India programme that spread across 448 districts covering all 29 States and six Union Territories.
Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ramesh Abhishek and CEO & MD of Invest India, Deepak Bagla, were also present on the occasion, according to an official statement here.