Facebook Ties Up with SAIF Partners To Boost India’s SMB Ecosystem

Strengthening its commitment to enable the growth of small and medium businesses (SMBs) and entrepreneurship in the country, Facebook India today announced its collaboration with SAIF Partners, one of the leading venture capital funds in the country that is invested in helping brands grow by supporting visionary entrepreneurs across diverse sectors.

The partnership is a part of Facebook’s VC Brand Incubator Program, which is an industry-first initiative launched in June for building the ecosystem for SMB growth in the country by providing young businesses with timely skilling and guidance. In just five short months, the VC Brand Incubator Program has tied up with three venture capital funds -  Sauce.VC, Fireside Ventures, and now SAIF Partners. In partnership with these three VC funds, Facebook has already skilled, trained, and mentored more than 70 brands at various stages of their growth journey.

Talking about the VC Brand Incubator Program, and the latest partnership with SAIF Partners Archana Vohra, Director, Small and Medium Businesses at Facebook India said, “Our vast experience with SMBs tells us that strong digital skills and timely guidance can help them succeed and increase profits quickly. Facebook has consistently delivered business results for SMBs, and through the VC Brand Incubator Program and the latest partnership with SAIF Partners we’ve deepened our commitment to the growth of small businesses and entrepreneurship in India. Businesses from across industries and at different stages of their growth journey have experienced measurable and positive business impact as a result of this program, and with SAIF Partners on board we now have an opportunity to deliver an even larger impact.”

SAIF Partners is one of the leading venture capital funds in India. In the past it has been an early stage investor in iconic brands such as MakeMyTrip, BookMyShow, Justdial.com, and Paytm.

Said Deepak Gaur, Managing Director, SAIF Partners, “We are thrilled to partner with Facebook to create a platform for young consumer companies to learn from the Facebook leadership as well as each other about the best practices and the playbook for scaling on Facebook’s family of apps. We believe that programs like the VC Brand Incubator will go a long way in helping early stage consumer-focused companies avoid common mistakes, enabling them to create differentiated brand awareness on digital platforms in the most efficient manner.”

Twenty-four brands associated with SAIF Partners have now become a part of Facebook’s VC Brand Incubator Program. They are from industries as distinct as e-commerce, CPG, auto, education, and health among others, and include names such as Chaayos, Spinny, Airblack, Peebuddy, Skoodoo, and TheMomsCo.

Said Raghav Verma, Co-Founder of Chaayos, “Facebook and Instagram are important platforms for us to communicate with our audience. The session with Facebook experts helped us understand the new rules for winning on these new-age mediums. We have already run pilot campaigns, and seen tangible results by leveraging the right audience, mood, and creative designs.”

Since the inception of the VC Brand Incubator Program in June brands from distinct industries have participated in it. Many of these brands have seen considerable and measurable growth in brand awareness, sales, and profits as a result of the Program.

Said Aman Gupta, Co-Founder of BOAT, which sells trendy and affordable audio products and accessories, “Facebook's support has helped us propel our business and attain 10X growth in scale. This has been achieved via their special events, managed support, and guidance around the best practices. The program helps brand like us grow manifold by driving business outcomes. With 1.1M members in our boAthead family, our journey has just begun.”

“We became a part of the VC Brand Incubator Program in July and since then we’ve been able to increase traffic on our Website by nearly 50%, get new customers, and have seen revenue from Facebook increase by almost 30%,”  said Ritika Gupta, Director and Co-Founder, KalkiFashion.

SMBs are the backbone of India’s economy, and a large source of new job creation in the country. Facebook is committed to boosting the SMB and startup ecosystem in the country, and through programs such as the VC Brand Incubator it will continue to contribute to the social and economic growth of India.