Facebook announced that in line with India’s ‘Startup India’ initiative it will create opportunities and invest in India’s startup ecosystem in 2018.
“India is producing a new generation of startups that have incredible potential. Facebook is committed to helping create economic growth opportunities for startups and skill seekers in India and will continue investing in India’s digital skills of the future,” said Ankhi Das, director of public policy for Facebook in India.
“A lot of our focus will be to support small businesses in India, particularly those run by women to help them connect, share and grow through more initiatives like #SheMeansBusiness and SheLeadsTech. Through #SheMeansBusiness, Facebook has visited 18 cities across 6 states in India, providing skills training to more than 14,000 small businesses and self-help groups including 12,000 women entrepreneurs across the country,” Das added.
Last month, Facebook had announced two new programmes in India — an exclusive 6-month Accelerator programme, for which it shortlists 10 VR-based startups in India, and a School of Innovation for engineering students in India.
Additionally, the company has also introduced its digital training and startup training hubs in India through which it aims to train more than half a million people in India by 2020.
To recall, in this month Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin had invested in an Indian startup mSwipe marking his first Indian startup investment.
As per Traxn data, Startups have raised roughly $8 billion in the first nine months of the year compared with $4.6 billion in all of 2016. The volume of deals, however, has dropped to 700 compared with more than 1,000 in 2016, according to Tracxn.
