Facebook gearing up to make substantial investments in Indian startups

In a move that would give a tremendous boost to startup ecosystem in India, social media major Facebook is gearing up to make substantial investments in techlogy startups, a top company official said here on Friday.

"We w have shown willingness to make direct investments in techlogy startups in India. We are willing to spend our time, and energy to tap massive depth of engineering talent in country," Facebook India Vice-President and Managing Director Ajit Mohan said.

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He was dressing opening session of second edition of Huddle Kerala 2019, one of Asias largest congregations on startup ecosystem, here. two-day event is being organised by Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) in association with Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

In his keyte dress, Mohan said: "A couple of months ago, we anunced first mirity investment that Facebook has done anywhere in world in a company called Meesho. What Meesho does is it relies on existing behaviour of communities in India and levers on women entrepreneurs essentially pitching products to ir friends and families." best thing about ir model was it could bring 2,00,000 first-time female entrepreneurs online, he ted.

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Dramatic impact in job creation

It is an invation that was coming out of India which can be exported to rest of world, and that model has scaled a dramatic impact in job creation. Any analysis of ecomy, most of job creation happens from small business, Facebook executive said. Citing government data, he said women's representation in techlogy sector stood between 30 per cent and 35 per cent. A lot of our energy must go to break imbalance. We have to think about what are barriers that limit women from coming online, he said ding that company's focus was on skill-building, and introduction of platforms to startups.

Anil Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Tre (DPIIT), who was chief guest, said or states should replicate Kerala model in building startup ecosystem. Referring to ubiquitous startup milieu in country, he said nearly two startups were getting registered every hour in country. We have 22,895 registered startups in country as per records till September. Around 45 per cent of startups come from tier-2 and tier-3 cities. About 9 to 10 per cent startups have women as founders, and we have to promote women entrepreneurs, he ded.

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In his presidential dress, Kerala Electronics and IT Secretary M Sivasankar said penetration of startups in state during last three years was amazing. social change startups have brought is commendable. We have to give more emphasis on access, skill and content to sustain unique status of Kerala in startup ecosystem, he ded.

IAMAI Startup Foundation CEO Jitender S.Minhas said Kerala was exploring emerging techlogies like blockchain and or states have achieved kind of ecosystem it has created so far.

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KSUM CEO Saji Gopinath said Huddle Kerala was a key event for kwledge transfer, informal interaction and to impress upon ors about happenings in states startup ecosystem. event, which hosts an array of techlogy experts and marketing leers, will offer a unique platform for startups to showcase ir products before techlogy and industry leers from around world.

More than 30 speakers, investors and industry challengers are also part of Huddle Kerala.