Facebook India on Wednesday said it will be collaborating with Venture Capital (VC) Funds to accelerate the growth of the small and medium businesses (SMBs) they invest in.

The VC Brand Incubator Programme will be the first in a series of programmes by Facebook that will be geared towards laying a strong foundation for SMB growth in India by providing them with timely skill and guidance, enabling these businesses to hasten socio-economic growth of the country as well.

As a part of this programme, Facebook will work with VC funds with the aim of skilling and mentoring the brands by sharing insights on best practices, proven solutions, playbooks, vertical-insights among other key learnings. For the first edition, Facebook is working with Sauce.vc, a Mumbai-based early-stage venture capital fund that among others has partnered with start-ups in the food and beverages, personal care, apparel, and the lifestyle space.

“With the VC Brand Incubator programme we hope to unlock the potential of SMBs in India, enabling them to enhance their and the country's socio-economic growth. SMBs are the backbone of our economy and Facebook is the default destination for them to thrive and grow. Several SMBs are actively working towards creating a larger social change, and many are empowering women entrepreneurs and generating impact in tier-2 and tier-3 towns,” Archana Vohra, Director, Small and Medium Businesses at Facebook India, said. Working with VC funds is crucial for the company as it allows it to scale and support SMBs at an early-stage itself, fast-tracking their growth, she added.

India is home to one of the largest start-up ecosystems in the world, and venture capital funds are an integral part of this network, the company said. The number of small venture capital funds with active investments has been rising steadily in recent years.

However, a robust skilling and support infrastructure to ensure the swift scale-up of SMBs is still lacking in the country. The VC Brand Incubator programme aims to solve for this gap by supporting the VC funds and the brands they are invested in to facilitate their growth and remove roadblocks, the company added.

Manu Chandra, Founder, Sauce.vc said, “The VC Brand Incubator programme provides a much needed understanding of Facebook, its family of Apps, and the digital landscape. The entire consumer startup ecosystem benefits from these initiatives, both from a skill-development and a community-building perspective.”

The VC Brand Incubator program is a series of events that will be held across Mumbai, Bangalore and other key cities, where SMBs will be provided with skilling and training sessions by Facebook experts on a range of themes and topics that will help them build their brands on the digital medium more effectively.

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