Early-stage start-ups in India are set to get a boost in their advertising and marketing initiatives, with Facebook-owned Whatsapp and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) tying up to provide nearly Rs 1.8 crore in free ad credits on the Facebook platform.
Under the initiative, the DPIIT will select up to 500 start-ups who will each get around USD 500 worth of ad credits. With these credits, the chosen startups can create ads that invite customers to click and open a chat on WhatsApp which would allow them to deepen connections to customers and increase sales.
"Start-ups and small businesses are the lifeblood of Indian communities and are a powerful driver of local economies. 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," said Abhijit Bose, head of WhatsApp India.
In order to be eligible for the programme, a start-up first needs to apply on the Startup India portal with officials saying that the applications will be taken up on a first-come-first-served basis. All applicant start-ups should be at an early traction or scalable stage and recognised by the DPIIT. Once registered on the platform, the first 500 entries will receive the free Facebook ad credits. Over the last three years, over 19,000 startups, spread across 513 districts have registered under the Startup India programme.
Facebook’s investment, while small, is just the latest in a series of similar support programmes and investment vehicles set up by large online companies in the Indian start-up ecosystem. It also comes in the wake of the Grand Challenge jointly organised by Start-up India and Whatsapp which saw fledgling firms compete to create solutions for socio-economic problems. The end of the program saw WhatsApp award five winners with a grant of USD 50,000 each (around Rs 35 lakh).