WhatsApp Announces ‘Startup India WhatsApp Grand Challenge’

WhatsApp on Thursday (31.Jan.2019 ) made a big announcement about the “Startup India WhatsApp Grand Challenge”, to power up the small business and startup entrepreneurs in India. To initiate the big game, WhatsApp has collaborated with Invest India.

The startup challenge theme includes rural economy, healthcare, financial and digital inclusion, citizen safety, and education.

“Entrepreneurs with highly innovative ideas, business models that solve for a local India problem, making a large scale socio-economic impact, are invited to apply,” WhatsApp said in a media release.

You can be a member in ‘clash of ideas’

The registrations to participate is open till March 10, 2019. First, there will be an evaluation process of applications by an independent evaluation committee post in which the best 30 ideas will be shortlisted for the following round and to 10 in the subsequent round. The selected 10 proposals will be invited to pitch during the grand finale live. The final 5 winning ideas will each receive a grant sum of Rs 1.8 Crore ($50,000) on May 24, 2019.

On October 31, 2018, Facebook-owned WhatsApp had announced a partnership with Invest India in the existence of Suresh Prabhu, Commerce & Industries Minister, Industrial Policy & Promotion Secretary, Ramesh Abhishek, and Chris Daniels, Vice President, WhatsApp.

“WhatsApp is a startup that has grown into a community and is an example of how an idea can grow to become an integral part of our day to day life [and]… that the Startup community is the future of India and will be the platform through which the millions of youth of this country will be gainfully employed.” said Suresh Prabhu.

The messaging giant has 1.3 billion global users and over 200 million users alone in India. It has been working on its business platform like the WhatsApp Business app, and WhatsApp Business API launched in 2018.

With the launch of the applications, it exhibits its offering to businesses of every size (small, medium, large firms) which became a formal way to connect with customers. Last week, WhatsApp announced that over 5 million businesses are linked through WhatsApp.