Facebook India to work with VC funds for boosting small & medium biz

Facebook India will collaborate with venture capital (VC) funds to accelerate the growth of  small and medium businesses (SMBs).

The US-based social media giant said that for the first edition, it will work with Sauce.vc, a Mumbai-based early-stage venture capital fund.

Facebook will work with VC funds to mentor the brands by sharing insights on best practices, proven solutions, playbooks and vertical-insights. 

“With the VC Brand Incubator program, we hope to unlock the potential of SMBs in India, enabling them to enhance their and the country's socio-economic growth,”said Archana Vohra, director, small and medium businesses, Facebook India. “SMBs are the backbone of our economy, and Facebook is the default destination for them to thrive and grow.”   

“As a consumer- focused investor, we look for social marketing expertise in teams that we back as it is a huge driver of success for small startups that have to optimise every rupee spent. The entire consumer startup ecosystem benefits from these initiatives, both from a skill-development and a community-building perspective,” said Manu Chandra, founder, Sauce.vc. 

The VC Brand Incubator program will organise events across Mumbai, Bangalore and other key cities where SMBs will be provided with skilling and training sessions by Facebook experts.

Facebook will also launch other programmes soon to benefit SMBs at different stages of their lifecycle. Some of these programmes will be curated for agencies as well as industry partners who regularly work with SMBs, it added.