WhatsApp to invest $250,000 in partnership with Startup India to boost Indian startup community

WhatsApp wants to help out the Indian startup community and to that effect, it has partnered with Startup India to invest $250,000 to help entrepreneurs. WhatsApp will be providing 500 startups, approved by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), $500 each of Facebook ad credits. This is to ensure that upcoming startups can post free ads (amounting to $500) to invite customers to click open a chat on WhatsApp to increase customer connect. To be eligible for this $500 ad credit, startups must be at an early traction or scalable stage and must be recognised by DPIIT. Interested startups can apply here. Once registered, the first 500 entries will receive free Facebook ad credits worth $500. [caption id=“attachment_4309447” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] WhatsApp Business.[/caption] This investment is happening on the sidelines of another initiative that WhatsApp partnered on with Startup India. The Startup India-WhatsApp Grand Challenge was an initiative where WhatsApp awarded five Grand Challenge winners a grant worth $50,000 for coming up with India-specific solutions to resolve socio-economic problems. (Also Read: Your complete guide to WhatsApp Business: How it works and what sets it apart from the standard app ) “Startups and small businesses are the lifeblood of Indian communities and are a powerful driver of local economies,” said Abhijit Bose, Head of WhatsApp India. “India’s entrepreneurs are at the forefront of bringing impactful social and economic change, and we at WhatsApp are committed to providing them support in achieving success.” Ever since WhatsApp Business has gone live, around 1 million small and medium businesses have registered on WhatsApp Business in India. In the last three years, under the Startup India programme, there are over 19,000 startups registered with Startup India program that spread across 513 districts covering all 29 States and 6 Union Territories.