In one of the largest partnerships signed last October, Invest India through its flagship initiative Startup India tied-up with Facebook owned WhatsApp to help the growth of startups and SMB sector in India.

With business products like WhatsApp Business app and WhatsApp Business API, WhatsApp currently has over 5 million businesses on its business platform. India has about 50 million SMB businesses and a flourishing startup ecosystem. Thus Whatsapp as well as Indian SMB sector has a lot to gain from this initiative.

Whatsapp-Startup India Grand Challenge

A total of $250,000 in cash will be offered to 5 winners of this challenge i.e. $50,000 to each winner.

Applications are invited from entrepreneurs, with highly innovative ideas and business models that has a potential to solve some local problem, making a huge socio-economic impact.

Themes for this challenge are as follows:

• Healthcare
• Rural Economy
• Financial and Digital Inclusion
• Education
• Citizen Safety

Entrepreneurs and innovators from several relevant industries can participate in this challenge. Out of all application received, 30 applicants will be shortlisted in the first round. Out of these 30, only 10 will be shortlisted for the final round and 5 winners will be chosen from these.

The deadline for submission is 10^th March, 2019.

Please refer more details at the offical StartupIndia website here.

Got any idea for some new STEEM DAPP? 😉

I think, even existing startups can also apply for this $50,000 grant as the application is open for Ideation Stage Startup Validation Stage Startup, Early Traction Startup and Scaling Stage Startup too.

If you have any inclination towards entrepreneurship, this is a good opportunity to start with.

Wishing you success!