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To tap engineering talent, Facebook to invest in tech startups in India – ET BrandEquity – ETBrandEquity.com


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

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

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

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In his keynote address, Mohan said: A couple of months ago, we announced the first minority investment that Facebook has done anywhere in the world in a company called Meesho. What Meesho does is it relies on the existing behaviour of communities in India and leverages on women entrepreneurs essentially pitching products to their friends and families.”

The best thing about their model was it could bring 2,00,000 first-time female entrepreneurs online, he noted. It is an innovation that was coming out of India which can be exported to rest of the world, and that model has scaled a dramatic impact in job creation. Any analysis of economy, most of the job creation happens from small business, the Facebook executive said.

Citing the government data, he said womens’ representation in the technology sector stood between 30 per cent and 35 per cent. A lot of our energy must go to break gender imbalance. We have to think about what are the barriers that limit women from coming online, he said adding that the company’s focus was on skill-building, and introduction of platforms to startups.





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