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<ul><li><keyword id="3480589" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="meesho" source="Orion">Meesho</keyword> is the new kid on the block that has emerged as a challenger to <keyword id="18635" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="amazon" source="Orion">Amazon</keyword> and <keyword id="6354742" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="flipkart" source="Orion">Flipkart</keyword> with 120 mn users</li><li>Aims to bring 100 mn small sellers across India online</li><li>The newly minted unicorn is looking at going public in less than two years after it turns profitable.</li></ul>Shaan Ansari is a 19-year old entrepreneur who lives in the historic city of Panipat, 100 kms north of Delhi, and he may never qualify for any list celebrating under-20 entrepreneurs, but his story is no less inspiring than Ranveer Singh’s character in Gully Boy. The pandemic put his father out of work and Ansari out of school back in 2020. When crisis struck, Ansari went scouting for opportunities online that would require zero investment and he found it in Meesho, a social commerce platform that is designed to help solo entrepreneurs and small businesses sell their wares to a wider audience. Ansari sourced bath mats and door mats made locally and started selling them on Meesho. When his suppliers could not meet the demand, Ansari borrowed money to start his own factory. Today he manufactures these mats from a rented factory, employs 50 people and clocks revenues of ₹30 lakh a month. It is transformational stories like Ansari’s that keep Meesho’’s co-founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey and his team going. Recalling his trip to Panipat, Aatrey, says, “The neighbourhood that Ansari lives in is a really humble one and his home actually doubles up as a warehouse. When I visited him, his staff and family offered dry fruits with chai. Ansari kept telling us how his family’s fortunes have changed after he discovered Meesho. As a team we travel every quarter to listen to sellers like Ansari on our platform and are now attempting to solve some of their other financial needs so that they don’t have to go to money lenders for working capital needs.” <div type="image" title="Meesho_1 (1)" height="900" width="1200" msid="93702892" hostid="261"></div> 100 million sellers to reach a billion buyers Aatrey’s dream is to get a million local businesses online so that they expand their markets by selling wares across India, irrespective of where they are located. In the last two years, this new kid on the block has emerged as a challenger to the Big Boys of e-commerce. Meesho - which is a short code for ‘my shop’ - has gotten bigger after the pandemic with 120 million monthly active users (MAUs) in a short span of time. Flipkart and Amazon have 200 million registered users each. Meesho’s target is to have 100 million sellers on its platform and sell to a billion buyers. Meesho was born on the premise that for online commerce to genuinely offer value, local retailers had to go online. Unorganized retail accounts for 90% of India’s spends. But when Aatrey and his co-founder Sanjeev Bamwal discovered that the sellers were not coming online because the buyers were not all shopping online. The pandemic has enabled Meesho to bring a lot more local businesses online as it was a matter of their survival. Challenging Amazon and Flipkart In the early days, Meesho’s sales were driven by 15 million women resellers, who bought products from the platform and sold it through WhatsApp and Facebook groups. From being a social commerce platform driven by re-sellers, it today has a share of nearly 30% in total daily online deliveries. Of the 9 million e-commerce orders processed daily, Meesho accounts for 2.7 million, while the two biggies account for 5 million. Clearly, Meesho is the challenger that nobody expected would catch up with Amazon and Flipkart. Another interesting statistic says that of the 70 million shoppers online, only 10 million are digital natives. It is a no-brainer then that India’s small businesses can provide the network effect to any online commerce platform that chooses to target this segment. Meesho waded into this space back in 2015, but found it tough to convince small entrepreneurs to come online because their customers were not online either. Language barriers and quality of internet speeds were only a few reasons why sellers were not online. Even when they brought sellers online, their buyers were still not online nor was Meesho’s app on too many smartphones. This changed after the pandemic but before that it was Meesho’s army of 15 million women resellers that drove its gross merchandise value up until 2020. Meesho is called a social commerce channel because it has been built by women resellers who found a vocation and economic independence by reselling goods purchased from the platform on WhatsApp and Facebook groups. Between 2017 and 2020, 100% sales were happening through resellers. The share of these women resellers is now down to 20% as consumers have now started downloading the app. Meesho’s monthly average users stand at 120 million and 35 million users transact on the app every month. On an average, 110 million Indian shoppers bought on Meesho last year. Not surprising that investors have also queued up to invest in the company. After raising seed capital of $300,000 from angel investors in March 2016, Meesho is valued at $4.9 bn after its latest round of capital raise of $570 mn in September 2021. Its list of marquee investors include Soft Bank Vision Fund 2, Prosus, Fidelity Management and Research, Yuri Milner’s DST Partners, Sequoia, SAIF Partners and Y Combinator among others. Sellers turn brand ambassadors <div type="image" title="Meesho_2 (1)" height="900" width="1200" msid="93702936" hostid="261"></div> Currently, there are six lakh sellers like Ansari on Meesho and the start-up wants to take this to one million. This goal may be work-in-progress, but every week employees join the Meesho Sabha, a meeting where examples like Ansari are discussed at length so that the team does not take its eyes off the goal post. Even though Meesho continues with its outreach programme to help sellers, existing sellers have now become brand ambassadors who are helping others get online. The platform offers peer-to-peer learning in several languages for those who want to get started. Says Dhiresh Bansal, chief financial officer of Meesho, “We still do our outreach programmes but a lot of people are now coming to our platform, as they need to diversify by targeting newer markets. Also the younger generation is more progressive and are taking their family businesses online.” After its success in the last two years, Meesho’s working hard to resolve several issues of sellers on its platform. Most of these sellers have seen a sharp rise in demand for their products after going online and the need for working capital requirement has gone up sharply. Lucknow-based Suman Agrawal used to sell women’s fashion clothing at her boutique but has shut it down after her brand Rudraksh saw sales boom on Meesho. She currently manages 22,000 orders a month. There are several sellers in India who cannot go online because they don’t have the requisite GST number. Aatrey has been a votary of their cause for a while. In June this year, the GST Council cleared a proposal that will no longer require sellers on e-commerce platforms to have a GST registration, if their turnover is less than ₹40 lakh and ₹20 lakh for goods and services respectively. This rule will come into effect from January 2023. Aatrey believes that this will be a game changer for millions of small sellers across India. While the company is not looking to raise capital immediately, it has plans to turn profitable and then hit the markets in a couple of years. The e-commerce player is looking at tightening its belt on costs now that it has attained scale. If it has to turn profitable in under 2 years then Meesho will have to cut back on cashburn and conserve capital. Aatrey says, “This festive season will give us an indication if there is any slowdown. We have not seen that so far, so it will be something that we will learn from.” <div type="image" title="Meesho_3 (1) (1)" height="900" width="1200" msid="93703012" hostid="261"></div> SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/sensex-slips-517-points-goes-below-the-60000-mark/articleshow/93701486.cms">Sensex slips 517 points, goes below the 60,000-mark</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/not-just-ev-makers-there-are-many-more-stocks-that-can-gain-from-ev-play/articleshow/93696654.cms">Not just EV makers, there are many more stocks that can gain from EV play</a>

Meet India’s Real Gully Boy: Vidit Aatrey of Meesho is taking the entrepreneurial dream deep inside Bharat

<ul><li><keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>'s first social commerce platform has turned 1.23 lakh small business owners into lakhpatis. </li><li><keyword id="3480589" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="meesho" source="Orion">Meesho</keyword> has overtaken <keyword id="18635" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="amazon" source="Orion">Amazon</keyword> and <keyword id="6354742" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="flipkart" source="Orion">Flipkart</keyword> in terms of user penetration in tier 2 to tier 4 cities of India. </li><li>Compressed app size, explainer videos on doing business, monthly visits to households of small businessmen is how Meesho is capturing India’s rural heartland. </li></ul>At 13 years of age, <keyword id="15066970" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="divyanjali-mishra" source="Orion">Divyanjali Mishra</keyword> is a year short of the legal age to work in India but the entrepreneurial bug bit this teen after she saw her brother-in-law become successful online. She too followed the same path to make and sell t-shirts, wallets and belts on Meesho – an enterprise that made her a <keyword id="23267" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="crorepati" source="Orion">crorepati</keyword> before she turned 18. Her businesses HK Traders and Parthasarathi Enterprises have an annual turnover of ₹24 crore, processing 3,000-4,000 orders per day that she receives from Meesho. Her business now employs over 30 women – all under the age of 23 and coming from economically weaker backgrounds. <div type="image" title="Divyanjali Mishra" msid="94399483" hostid="261" sizebytes="34420"></div> Light and fast Social commerce app Meesho has given wings to many such young, restless, ambitious and talented entrepreneurs across the country – at least 8,000 sellers on Meesho have turned crorepatis since January 2021. As many as 1.23 lakh small business owners have turned into lakhpatis on Meesho. With over 127 million users in August 2022 alone, what is driving this unicorn's customer and seller growth? One trait that’s common between Meesho and its sellers is speed. "Our vision is to democratise internet e-commerce. When the cost of trying out a business online is massively reduced and onboarding happens within 12 hours, more sellers come onboard," said <keyword id="1893518" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="megha-agarwal" source="Orion">Megha Agarwal</keyword>, CXO, user growth at Meesho, in an interview with Business Insider India. It also has features unique to small businesses and new enterprises – like the 7-day payment feature. When these sellers are paid faster, they can re-invest faster and hence chase growth. It also helps cover some risks with the ‘Zero penalty’ feature, where sellers are not penalised for self or auto cancellation of orders, Meesho said. Meesho's app is also the lightest e-commerce app in India at 13.6 MB. Flipkart’s app takes up 18 MB of space while Amazon requires 59 MB. "Our customers are mostly from tier 2, tier 3 and tier 4 cities of India. We are aware that customers don't always have smartphones with high data storage. Thus we made our app very light. To make the process of onboarding easier, we are now providing the app in nine vernacular languages," said Agarwal. Meesho, which is backed by Facebook and SoftBank, currently has 360 million downloads – 175 million of these in the last year alone. How does Meesho churn out entrepreneurs from rural India? The social e-commerce team at Meesho conducts monthly travel sessions with the team to the hometowns of their businessmen and businesswomen. It also provides monetary initial boost to sellers who are coming onboard for the first time. “Additionally, we provide free ad credits worth ₹1,200 to all new suppliers who create 7 live catalogues milestones within the first two weeks of their journey,” said Meesho. To promote ease of doing business, the unicorn has created two activation teams dedicated to understanding how to make it easy for sellers who are uneducated. "To improve comprehension and reduce friction, we have created two activation teams from both the seller and user side. Over 20 plus videos exist to educate about sales online. Even the stories we pick to celebrate are meant to be encouraging for small business owners, making us friendly and approachable, " said Agarwal. Over 35% of the seller base from tier 4 regions The social e-commerce app is trying to reach the rural heartland of India. Over 35% of the Meesho seller base hailed from tier 4 regions. In June 2022 alone, there were 23,000 seller registrations – the highest ever from tier 4 cities. Mandi in Himachal Pradesh; Muzaffarnagar and Unnao in Uttar Pradesh; Buhana, Paota, and Kaman in Rajasthan are popular tier 4 business spots for Meesho. Nearly 41% of all Meesho sellers hail from tier 2+ regions such as Hisar, Panipat and Tiruppur, among others. According to a Bernstein report 2022, the sweet spot for e-commerce growth in India is from tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Meesho is outperforming Amazon and Flipkart when it comes to these cities, it reported. In spite of having 700,000 sellers on its platform, Amazon is yet to gain ground in a very important category in India — tier 2 and tier 3 markets. One of India's fastest e-commerce companies, Meesho is looking forward to expanding its portfolio to 100 million sellers with the upcoming festivities. The <keyword id="15066971" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="meesho-blockbuster-sale" source="Orion">Meesho blockbuster sale</keyword> beginning from 23rd September will offer products at prices that are 15% lower than that offered by the big e-commerce platforms, claims the company. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/doodlage-and-ecokaari-startups-are-converting-waste-into-bags-and-clothes/articleshow/94388327.cms">Fashion forward: These startups are converting waste into bags and clothes</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/most-indians-to-spend-more-than-10000-on-shopping-in-the-upcoming-festive-season-says-report/articleshow/94389278.cms">Most Indians to spend more than ₹10,000 on shopping in the upcoming festive season, says report</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/whatsapp-pay-india-head-mahatme-quits-likely-to-return-to-amazon-pay/articleshow/94378345.cms">WhatsApp Pay India head Mahatme quits, likely to return to Amazon Pay</a>

Online e-commerce player Meesho is the new crorepati factory

<ul><li><keyword id="3480589" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="meesho" source="Orion">Meesho</keyword> witnessed nearly a five-fold increase in the number of orders during its ‘Maha Indian Savings Sale’.</li><li>The company also claimed that 78% of its demand came from Tier 2 markets like Bhilal, Guntur, Hubli and Kollam.</li><li>Meesho claimed that nearly 1 lakh sellers have participated in the recent sale, out of which 26,000 were new.</li></ul>Facebook-backed ecommerce company Meesho claims to have recorded 5.35 million (53.5 lakh) orders during its one-day sale held earlier this week on Sunday (June 5), translating to over 60 orders every second. Meesho noted that it witnessed nearly a five-fold increase in the number of orders during its one-day sale this year, compared to 1 million orders in its 2021 sale. The company also claimed that 8 out of 10 orders came from Tier 2 markets like Bhilal, Guntur, Hubli, Kollam, Meerut and Port Blair. Top categories to witness the highest growth during the sale were Apparel, Kidswear, Consumer Electronics and Home Decor. Meesho claimed that nearly 1 lakh sellers have participated in the recent sale – and 3 out of 4 were from Tier 2+ regions like Bathinda, Haldwani, Solapur and Tirunelveli among others. “Participating sellers witnessed ~217% increase in orders during the sale event compared to business-as-usual (BAU),” the company added. About 26,000 sellers participated in Meesho’s sale for the first time. “Despite rising inflation and macroeconomic conditions, we hit an all-new record of 5.35 million orders during the one-day sale event, serving over ~20,000+ pincodes. In the last 6 months, we have witnessed a ~3.75X jump in seller participation in sale events,” Utkrishta Kumar, CXO of Business at Meesho, said. Founded in 2015 by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho is an ecommerce company that has raised over a billion dollars till date. The company’s investors include Meta (formerly known as Facebook), SoftBank, Trifecta Capital Advisors, Fidelity Management and Research Company and others. The company — whose mobile app has been downloaded 102 million times — was valued at <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/meesho-raises-more-than-half-a-billion-dollars-in-the-fourth-biggest-funding-round-this-year/articleshow/86636161.cms">$4.9 billion </a>in September 2021. It claims to have over 44 million products listed on its platform. Meesho competes with other ecommerce giants Amazon, Flipkart and Reliance’s JioMart. Although JioMart was founded four years after Meesho, the company was operating under the social commerce industry then. The company pivoted to the social commerce model only last year. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/pepper-content-raises-14-million-to-enter-the-us-market/articleshow/92084581.cms" style="">INTERVIEW: Pepper Content skip the traditional Middle East route, heads directly for the US market</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/flipkart-has-lived-up-to-expectations-so-far-says-walmart-ceo-confirms-ipo-plans/articleshow/92096890.cms" style="">Flipkart has ‘lived up to expectations so far’, says Walmart CEO, confirms IPO plans</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/mobikwik-plans-to-raise-100-million-as-ipo-delayed/articleshow/92099731.cms" style="">Mobikwik looks to raise $100 million as it delays IPO plans, founder says the ‘markets are not ready’</a>

India's youngest ecommerce giant received more than 60 orders every second during its one-day sale

<ul><li><keyword id="6762469" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tiktok" source="Orion">TikTok</keyword>, Instagram and Facebook were the top three most downloaded non-gaming apps in October 2021, according to <keyword id="7143830" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sensor-tower" source="Orion">Sensor Tower</keyword>.</li><li><keyword id="3480589" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="meesho" source="Orion">Meesho</keyword> saw over 57 million downloads across the App Store and the Google Play Store from August to October, 2021, the social commerce platform revealed.</li></ul>While TikTok was the most downloaded <keyword id="12484003" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="non-gaming-app" source="Orion">non-gaming app</keyword> worldwide for October 2021 with more than 57 million installs, Indian social commerce platform Meesho became the 8th most downloaded non-gaming app for the month, according to a recent Sensor Tower blog. <div type="image" title="MMA Brand Fraud" msid="87622017" hostid="261"></div> The platform revealed that Meesho saw over 57 million downloads across the App Store and the Google Play Store from August to October, 2021, as per <keyword id="1646890" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="app-annie" source="Orion">App Annie</keyword>, making it the most downloaded app across all categories in India. In a statement, Meesho said, "The company has seen installations in India grow by over 120% quarter-on-quarter in Q3 2021, outranking all other e-commerce platforms in the country for quarterly downloads." The blog also revealed that Instagram was the second most installed non-gaming app worldwide last month with more than 56 million installs, which represented a 31% increase from October 2020. The countries with the largest number of Instagram installs were from India at 39%, followed by Brazil at 6%. Facebook, WhatsApp, and <keyword id="1275203" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="telegram" source="Orion">Telegram</keyword> rounded out the top five most installed non-gaming apps worldwide for the month.

Meesho was the 8th most downloaded non-gaming app globally in October, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook hold the top 3 spots: Sensor Tower

<ul><li>Home-grown platform Meesho is the latest start-up to join the unicorn club after raising $300 million from Softbank Vision Fund 2.</li><li>Founded in 2015, Meesho launched its first TVC in 2020 that aimed to celebrate financial independence of Indian women. It is now planning to go bullish on marketing with new campaigns and collaborations to expand its reseller user base.</li><li>Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO, Meesho walks us through the company’s journey from scratch, marketing goals for the year and shares his vision.</li></ul>It was in 2015 that Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO of Meesho decided to quit InMobi and start his own business. He and his partner Sanjeev Barnwal, Founder and CTO of Meesho came up with an idea to build a platform to help micro and small businesses shift online and leverage the power of digital technologies. So, as social commerce was struggling to make inroads in India, Meesho led the way and revolutionized the industry. “Social commerce was already a popular concept at that time but the challenges such as limited access to supply, lack of logistics/ payment options, customer friendly policies etc, were also on the rise,” shared Aatrey. Months went into experimenting with the idea, researching the market and getting the logistics right. They juggled between ideas until they perfected the core business proposition. Cut to today, Meesho has just raised $300 million in a new round of funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 on April 02. The startup has already joined the unicorn club. As per media reports, the new Series E round gives the five-year-old Bangalore-based company a valuation of $2.1 billion, up from about $600 million-$700 million in the 2019 Series D investment. The social commerce platform claims to have over 13 million entrepreneurs, a majority of whom are women. It has helped them start their own online businesses with zero investment, bringing the benefits of e-commerce to over 45 million customers across the country. Sharing why Aatrey started Meesho, he said, “‘Meesho’ stands for ‘meri shop’ or apni dukaan. Almost 9 out of every 10 individuals in India have a dream of starting his/her small business. Given the increasing number of self-employed, small business owners, gig workers in India it is no surprise that Indians have an enterprising mind. However, starting a business requires a lot of capital. India is not such a rich country. Most people do not have access to capital. These people who never had the opportunity to start a store came onto our platform and became entrepreneurs for the first time. One can come here, start his/her shop on WhatsApp, access anything from our supplier marketplace, and as per consumer orders, purchase is made from the marketplace.” Meesho primarily connects sellers with customers through social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook. It supervises logistics, online payment and provides real-time updates. Till date, the company has delivered orders from 100K+ registered suppliers to over 26,000 pin codes in more than 4,800 cities, helping generate over Rs 500 crore in income for entrepreneurs and serving customers in more than 4,500 Tier 2+ cities -- bringing e-commerce to Bharat. As per a recent report by Deloitte, India’s e-commerce is expected to grow from $24 billion in 2017 to $84 billion in 2021. Considering that India has about 60 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) currently, Meesho is just getting started. Aatrey said, “We have ~9M women entrepreneurs and India is roughly going to have more than 250M women who will be online by 2025. Given this understanding, we are just scratching the surfaces of enabling women to start their own business. With the growth that we have seen over the last year, we want to bring our value proposition to many aspiring women, and we see a lot of value in further communicating our value proposition. That said, we will consistently be communicating how Meesho can empower and enable women entrepreneurs in starting their home businesses.” According to Aatrey, the social reselling market in India is estimated to be $6-7 billion (GMV) in size as of 2020. By 2025, the social commerce is expected to be ~$70B and total ecommerce to be $200 Bn as the number of online shoppers, especially from tier II cities and beyond, continues to rise. After the pandemic, Meesho has also seen an increased adoption rate in Bharat. “Overall, more than 70% of our orders come from tier II+ towns. We have seen very good adoption in tier II+ towns during the pandemic: we have served 2000+ new tier 2+ towns since June and our order share from these towns has also increased from 67% earlier to 72% between July and December 2020,” said he. Aatrey believes that the future of online shopping is social commerce and more and more retail outlets have started exploring this medium after the pandemic. “I believe evolving technology is a wakeup call for everyone in business. It is imperative for all to realize the huge potential that digital has and ways to leverage it. The lockdown period came as a lesson for many of us. Many retailers in India resorted to selling products over WhatsApp and that shows how the retail market is also changing and moving towards digital. In fact, according to a retail website, today 85% of sellers using social commerce are small, offline retailers giving sharp competition to large organized sellers on e-commerce platforms. As per Bain Analysis, India has the highest number of internet users (572 million) globally, with substantial room for growth. So, the retail market has enough potential to leverage social commerce and bloom,” elaborated Aatrey. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Carving a niche beyond social commerce" text="Carving a niche beyond social commerce">Carving a niche beyond social commerce</cmsannotation> Since a majority of its sellers and buyers are women, Meesho’s communication also centers around women empowerment. Its mission is to help women achieve financial independence. Its first TVC, conceptualised by DDB Mudra, focused on an unstated need of a woman, which is to claim what she rightfully deserves – her own identity. The film celebrated the unstoppable spirit of women who overcome all social and economic barriers with the line that captures the sentiment of 'Not just a homemaker, a Meesho Entrepreneur.' <div type="Youtube" id="Y0nSzxtiShA" title="Many Names, One Identity #MyStoreMyStory" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y0nSzxtiShA/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Telling us more about the company's marketing proposition, Aatrey said, “We have more than 9 million resellers on our platform spread across 100 cities out of which 80% of them being women from smaller towns and cities. Social and cultural factors for years have kept this section of the society away from employment. Our strategy has always been to empower more and more people to fulfil their dream of becoming an entrepreneur, especially women, who due to social obligations sacrifice their dreams and fall behind in terms of financial independence. We wish to give them all a sense of self and accomplishment through our platform. Social media is our backbone and these entrepreneurs, our pillars of strength.” Meesho is also fighting against e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart, who are ploughing billions of dollars and have been around for a while. Meesho’s rivals have on-boarded Bollywood celebrities and have a huge media presence. “In the era of Amazon and Flipkart, we at Meesho are trying to build trust through social commerce. Our strategy has always been to empower more and more people to fulfil their dream. Our communication will remain around our USP- to help build entrepreneurs with zero capital. We will also find more channels this year to penetrate our value proposition further,” said Aatrey. Vision After the recent funding round, Meesho is aiming to build a single ecosystem that will enable all small businesses to grow faster. “With the new round of funding, we are now focused on expanding our vision — from helping aspiring women entrepreneurs to creating Meesho as a single ecosystem that will enable all small businesses in India to succeed online. In the last one year, we have seen tremendous growth across small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to move their businesses online. And with our new vision we will enable 100 million small businesses to start, succeed and lead their operations online with Meesho as their partner in their journey,” said Aatrey. The introduction of smartphones and penetration of the internet and WhatsApp in particular has made the market size for social commerce grow larger, which is estimated to reach $70B USD in 2025. Meesho aims to leverage this demand and go bullish on marketing with new campaigns and collaborations with different partners to accelerate its user base of resellers on the platform. “2021 has come with a new set of possibilities, opportunities, and challenges to tackle. We, at Meesho, are committed to our goal of letting anyone start a digital business with zero capital. Major focus area would be to enable increased adoption of Meesho’s platform across multiple categories which would be possible only when we are able to structurally reduce our prices for our customers. We also plan to leverage the digital ecosystem and unravel more benefits that it can offer for the betterment of our entrepreneurs and Meeho’s growth. We aim at surpassing all our achievements and recognitions from previous years and reach newer milestones. We are also looking at transforming the Meesho app for better experience for our entrepreneurs. With new built in features, we hope to enhance the look and feel of the app. ‘Meeshoites’ are looking at the year with great hope, plans and execution methods,” shared Aatrey.

Meesho's marketing strategy has been to empower women who lack financial independence, says CEO Vidit Aatrey

<ul><li><keyword id="5890319" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Social-E-commerce">Social e-commerce</keyword> startup <keyword id="3480589" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Meesho">Meesho</keyword> has raised $125 million from Naspers. </li><li>The startup was in the news for being Facebook’s first direct investment in India. </li><li>Meesho has over 2 million ‘social sellers’ across 700 towns in India.</li></ul>Meesho, the online marketplace raised $125 million funding led by Naspers. The round also saw participation from Facebook and existing investors SAIF, Sequoia, Shunwei Capital, RPS and Venture Highway and former Vodafone Group CEO Arun Sarin. Meesho is a marketplace for resellers, which connects them with customers via social media channels like WhatsApp and Facebook. “Our social sellers are small retailers, women, students and retired citizens, with 70% being homemakers who have found financial freedom and a business identity without having to step outside their homes,” said Vidit Aatrey, Meesho Co-Founder and CEO. One of the investors of this social e-commerce startup is Facebook. It’s the first time that the global giant picked up equity in an Indian startup. “With this investment in Meesho, we want to fuel a business model that can result in rapid job creation and the rise of a female entrepreneurial class in India," <keyword id="736869" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Facebook-India">Facebook India</keyword> head Ajit Mohan had then said in an <a href="https://www.livemint.com/companies/start-ups/facebook-invests-in-bengaluru-based-meesho-1560427873327.html">interview</a>. Meesho has over two million ‘social sellers’ across 700 towns in India along with a distribution channel of 15,000 suppliers in traditional manufacturing hubs. Its focus is largely on apparel, home, wellness and electronics items. The startup intends to create 20 million entrepreneurs by 2020. With the latest investment, Meesho wants to grow its community of women entrepreneurs and also reach out to remote customers of India. The startup was also a part of the global accelerator programme Y-Combinator. It had earlier raised a funding of $65 million from Sequoia India, DST Partners and Shunwei Capital.

Facebook-backed Indian startup Meesho raises $125 million from Naspers

<ul><li><keyword id="7413619" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="mall91">Mall91</keyword>, Dealshare, CityMall, Bulbul, WMall along with the Facebook-backed <keyword id="3480589" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Meesho">Meesho</keyword>, have raised funds in the past few months. </li><li>Each of these startup is targeting the next 200 million consumers from smaller cities.</li><li>It all started with social media giant <keyword id="6354576" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="facebook">Facebook</keyword> investing an undisclosed amount in Meesho in June.</li></ul>The Indian <keyword id="623994" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-commerce">social commerce</keyword> sector seems to be the latest ‘hot sector’ for investors. Many Indian startups – Mall91, Dealshare, CityMall, Bulbul, WMall along with the Facebook-backed Meesho, have raised funds in the last few months. Each of these startup is targeting the next 400 million consumers from smaller cities by leveraging on the expanding reach of social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp. With growing data penetration in India, social commerce is only set to grow. "Social commerce is basically a direct correlation to data penetration in the country. Today, everybody in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities also has an availability of the internet. A long-time back shopping online was restricted to a certain population, today there is an exponential possibility due to the availability of the internet, everybody has access to it from every sector of the society,” said Roma Priya, Founder of Burgeon Law, a boutique law firm. Priya added that given that social commerce has a more one-on-one, viral nature is a great way for a trust deficient demographic to buy again. Funding galore Today, Mall91 has raised $7.5 million through its Series A funding round led by Go-Ventures and participation by Beenext, Kalaari Capital, AngelList India. With the latest funds, Mall91 aims to drive growth and plans to expand to other top 8 local languages of India. The company is also planning to grow its supply chain capabilities domestically and internationally. It all started with social media giant Facebook investing an undisclosed amount in Meesho in June. Meesho is a marketplace for resellers, and connects them with customers via social media channels like WhatsApp and Facebook. “With this investment in Meesho, we want to fuel a business model that can result in rapid job creation and the rise of a female entrepreneurial class in India," Facebook India head Ajit Mohan had then said in an <a href="https://www.livemint.com/companies/start-ups/facebook-invests-in-bengaluru-based-meesho-1560427873327.html">interview.</a> This was followed by Dealshare which raised $11 million from Matrix Partners, Falcon Edge Capital and others. Meanwhile, barely one year old social e-commerce platform CityMall which operates in local languages-- raised an undisclosed amount from Jitendra Gupta of Citrus Pay, Alvin Tse of Xiaomi, Manish Vij and Harish Bahl from Smile Group, Rishab Malik ex-co-founder of Droom, Rajesh Sawhney of GSF and M&amp;S Partners. In May 2019. Bulbul, which is a live social commerce app, raised $5 million in a round that was led by Sequoia. It is also a part of Sequoia’s accelerator programme. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/facebook-invests-in-indian-startup-meesho/articleshow/69782285.cms">Facebook invests in Meesho showing that it will enter online e-commerce sooner than later</a>

Social commerce is the latest investor favourite as they target India’s next 400 million users

<ul><li>Global <keyword id="6354632" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-media">social media</keyword> giant <keyword id="6354576" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="facebook">Facebook</keyword> invested an undisclosed amount in Indian startup Meesho. </li><li>Meesho is a marketplace for resellers and connects them with customers via social media channels.</li><li>This is the first time Facebook has directly picked up equity in an Indian startup. </li></ul>Facebook <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/13/facebook-meesho-first-indian-startup-investment/">invested</a> an undisclosed amount in an Indian <keyword id="623994" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-commerce">social commerce</keyword> startup Meesho. This is the first time that the global giant picked up equity in an Indian startup. Meesho is a marketplace for resellers, and connects them with customers via social media channels like WhatsApp and Facebook. “With this investment in Meesho, we want to fuel a business model that can result in rapid job creation and the rise of a female entrepreneurial class in India," Facebook India head Ajit Mohan said in an <a href="https://www.livemint.com/companies/start-ups/facebook-invests-in-bengaluru-based-meesho-1560427873327.html">interview.</a> According to reports, Facebook was interested in Meesho because of the startup’s growing reach in Tier II and III cities, and the fact that 80% of resellers on the platform are women. “Over the last 4 years we've grown from our humble beginnings, to a community of more than 15,000 suppliers and 20,00,000 resellers throughout India. We share a common goal with Facebook - to enable the community and help small businesses grow,” Meesho founder Vidit Aatreywrote in a blog post. The startup was also a part of the global accelerator program Y-Combinator. It had earlier raised a funding of $65 million from Sequoia India, DST Partners and Shunwei Capital. Prior to this investment, Facebook had <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/07/little-eye-labs-acquisition/">acquired </a>Bengaluru-based Little Eye Labs which has a software tool for analyzing the performance of Android apps. “Facebook is an ally for India’s economic growth and social development. We are excited about India and its rapidly rising Internet ecosystem,” Mohan added. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/facebooks-zuckerberg-says-whatsapp-can-cannibalise-public-social-platforms/articleshow/69058552.cms">Zuckerberg claims that WhatsApp has the power to 'cannibalise' public social platforms</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/facebook-pay-for-user-data-on-study-from-facebook-the-research-app/articleshow/69756443.cms">Facebook will now pay you if you give access to your phone’s data</a>

Facebook invests in Meesho showing that it will enter online e-commerce sooner than later

In the ever-evolving communication landscape, more than 70 per cent of Indians prefer to message businesses rather than sending an email, calling or visiting their website, a new report said on Friday. Nearly 75 per cent of Indians surveyed said that they are more likely to do business with/purchase from a company that they can contact via messaging. People in <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword> increasingly prefer messaging over other forms of communication, the same way they chat with their friends and family, according to the research by <keyword id="1199021" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="kantar" source="Orion">Kantar</keyword> commissioned by <keyword id="399907" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="meta" source="Orion">Meta</keyword> (formerly <keyword id="6354576" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Facebook" source="Orion">Facebook</keyword>). "Today, customers not only want a quick and easy way to connect with brands, but they also want to engage with a brand to learn more about their product while considering a purchase," said Ravi Garg, Director <keyword id="3807245" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="business-messaging" source="Orion">Business Messaging</keyword> at Meta. The findings of the report showed that 86 per cent of adults message a business at least once a week, which is considerably higher than the global average of 66 per cent. Majority (83 per cent) of the people surveyed expect businesses to deploy quick and easy modes of communication, such as messaging. About 72 per cent of the people surveyed in India said they message with a business more often ever since the start of the pandemic. Interestingly, 75 per cent are more likely to do business with/purchase from a company that they can contact via messaging. "Conversational messaging is not only helping brands connect with consumers but also build brand experiences that grow their business," said Ravi Sundararajan, Chief Operating Officer, Gupshup. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/metas-metaverse-app-has-several-quality-issues-admits-head/articleshow/94696811.cms">Meta's metaverse app has several quality issues, admits head</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/flipkart-group-leads-e-commerce-festive-sales-meesho-is-second-largest-contributor-in-order-volume-redseer/articleshow/94701015.cms">Flipkart group leads e-commerce festive sales, Meesho is second largest contributor in order volume: Redseer</a>

Over 7 in 10 Indians now prefer to chat with businesses: Meta report

<ul><li>Mark Zuckerberg talked about India’s role in building the metaverse at the Fuel for India 2021 event.</li><li>Zuckerberg highlighted how India’s startup, developer and creator ecosystem is already building towards the future of the metaverse.</li><li><keyword id="399907" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="meta" source="Orion">Meta</keyword> also announced its extended partnership with CBSE.</li></ul>Meta (formerly Facebook) CEO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/enterprise/news/facebook-meta-microsoft-epic-games-and-others-companies-building-the-metaverse/articleshow/87663969.cms">Mark Zuckerberg</a> said he’s “really excited” about India’s role in building the metaverse. Speaking at the second edition of Fuel for India event, Zuckerberg talked about how India is already building towards the metaverse, a future he envisions will be the successor to the mobile internet. "I am really excited about the role that India will play in building this future. India’s talent pool – the engineers, developers and creators, and your whole vibrant start-up ecosystem are playing a huge role in shaping the future. India is on track to have the largest app developer base in the world by 2024, and already has one of the largest Spark AR developer communities,” Zuckerberg said. Zuckerberg also highlighted the developer and individual entrepreneur ecosystem in India and “the spirit around that is one of the things that makes India so special.” He added that India will provide a huge amount of the foundation for the metaverse. Metaverse is Meta’s next major focus for the years to come and it is already on track in creating such experiences for users. The company announced its rebranding with a new name ‘Meta’ to highlight its shift and focus to the metaverse – a digital environment where people can interact with others virtually anywhere, shop, work, play games and more. Zuckerberg also mentioned Meta’s investments in education and commerce platforms like Unacademy and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/meesho-becomes-most-downloaded-e-commerce-app-globally/articleshow/87630080.cms">Meesho</a>, and how the company will continue to invest in these areas. At the Fuel for India 2021 event, Meta also announced it is extending its partnership with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to educate over 10 million students and one 1 million educators through a curriculum on digital safety and online well-being and Augmented Reality (AR). Meta had also opened its first standalone office in Asia located in Gurugram. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/instagram-has-reportedly-hit-two-billion-monthly-active-users-but-regulatory-scrutiny-may-prevent-it-from-celebrating-the-milestone/articleshow/88292716.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Instagram has reportedly hit two billion monthly active users, but regulatory scrutiny may prevent it from celebrating the milestone</a>

Here is why Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg is praising India's techies as he dreams of a Metaverse future

<ul><li>The Facebook-Jio deal is reportedly sized in “multi-billion dollars” while some analysts estimate the value of Reliance Jio at $60 billion, which suggests that the Facebook deal could be worth $6 billion.</li><li>This is not the first time that Zuckerberg has tried for a larger footprint in India but the last time, he had partnered with Anil Ambani whose fortunes have been diminished significantly since then.</li><li>However, investing in a firm owned by the country’s richest man now, Mukesh Ambani, may give Facebook the best bang for the buck without the operational and regulatory challenges that come with setting up new businesses in another country.</li></ul>Facebook is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/facebook-is-reportedly-considering-investing-billions-of-dollars-in-an-indian-telecom-giant-to-boost-its-international-growth/articleshow/74800505.cms">reportedly</a> looking to acquire a 10% stake in the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio. This would allow the social media giant to expand its digital presence in the Indian market by tapping into Jio’s subscriber base of over 370 million, which is bigger than the entire population of the US. However, this isn’t the first time that Mark Zuckerberg’s come knocking on India’s door. His maiden attempt in 2013 was a grand promise of free internet and a 10-page plan, called Internet.org and Free Basics, in partnership with Mukesh’s brother Anil Ambani, whose telecom venture, incidentally, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/anil-ambanis-journey-from-42-billion-net-worth-to-claiming-poverty/articleshow/74028627.cms">declared bankruptcy</a> earlier this year. It was curtains for the first Ambani-Zuckerberg tie-up after the Indian government bowed in front of the massive backlash from those who <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/tech/net-neutrality-ravi-shankar-prasad-says-right-of-internet-access-is-non-negotiable/story-3HATMUGp5Qg4S0xq2sBagJ.html">sought ‘net neutrality’</a>. <div type="image" title="Mark Zukcerberg" msid="74804409" hostid="261"></div>

 Since then, in 2014, Facebook acquired Little Eye Labs — a startup based out of Bengaluru that was working on a software tool to analyse the performance of apps on Android phones. It has also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/facebook-invests-in-indian-startup-meesho/articleshow/69782285.cms">invested in Indian startup Meesho</a>, an e-commerce company that leverages social media to connect customers with resellers last year. In February 2020, it made its third investment <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/unacademy-raises-usd-110-mn-led-by-facebook-general-atlantic/articleshow/74211095.cms">in edtech startup Unacademy</a>. None of them compare to the scale and potential of the proposed deal talks with Reliance Jio, a unit of Reliance Industries, one of India’s biggest conglomerates owned by Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani. Zuckerberg is hoping that he has knocked on the doors of the right Ambani. <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; width: 451.276pt; table-layout: fixed;"></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Billionaire </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Net worth </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Asia ranking </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">World ranking </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Mark Zuckerberg </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$55.1 billion </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">- </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">4 </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Mukesh Ambani </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$32.8 billion </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">1 </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">13 </td></tr></tbody></table> The Facebook-Jio deal talks The Facebook-Jio deal is reportedly valued in “multi-billion dollars”, according to a report by the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a1ca0569-7ef7-49c8-b88e-72b792eefc62">Financial Times</a>. The Mark Zuckerberg-led company was close to signing a preliminary deal, but the Coronavirus pandemic has stalled it. Launched in 2016, the three-and-a-half-year-old Reliance Jio is valued at $60 billion by analysts at financial services firm Bernstein. A 10% stake would fetch the company $6 billion (approx. ₹45,000 crore). The current market capitalisation of the entire Reliance Industries, of which Reliance Jio is a part, is ₹6.5 lakh crore. 
 
 
 
 <div type="image" title="Reliance Industries" msid="74803978" hostid="261"></div>









 Jio is also reportedly in talks with Google, although details in this regard are not known yet. The deal talks may also be scuttled by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic but if and when they resume, the rationale for Facebook to pay top dollars for Jio’s shares are clear. Here’s why Facebook may want a stake in Reliance Jio What Zuckerberg and the younger Ambani sibling aimed⁠— provide internet access to all, as per their own stated goals ⁠— Jio has already achieved in less than three years of existence by just driving down the cost of data so low that millions of India’s poor could afford it. In a little over three years, Jio has gone from zero to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/mukesh-ambanis-reliance-jio-becomes-the-largest-telco-by-revenue-and-subscribers-as-industry-shows-signs-of-recovery/articleshow/73667566.cms">capturing nearly 35% of the total subscribers</a> in India. After offering free data and voice services to its users for six months, Jio changed the telecom landscape in India by offering high-speed 4G data at throwaway prices along with free voice calls. 
 
 
 
 <div type="image" title="Mukesh Ambani" msid="74804027" hostid="261"></div>









 While Mukesh Ambani may claim altruistic intentions, just like Zuckerberg and Anil Ambani did in 2013, Jio’s aggression was intended to capture market share from incumbent players like Airtel and Vodafone-Idea who have been entrenched in the market for decades. Apart from telecom services, Jio also offers a suite of apps including JioSaavn, JioTV and JioCinema. It also has a foot in the e-commerce business via JioMart, which was soft-launched earlier this year in partnership with Reliance Retail. Facebook's next few millions Although Facebook has a huge user base in India, 740 million in all, via its social media services and WhatsApp, this is one of the few markets in the world with a big enough headroom for growth, given the sheer size of the population. India’s internet users are estimated to increase by more than 70% in the next four years, according to a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/india-to-have-966-million-mobile-users-by-2023-but-less-than-5-will-have-5g-report/articleshow/74202680.cms">Cisco report</a>. And Jio, with its entire array of services from telecom to e-commerce to music, movies, and content, may be a holistic way of tapping into the market without having to face the operational challenges that come with it. Not just big, India is also a tough market both in terms of competition and regulation, something Zuckerberg may have learnt while trying to launch <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/whatsapp-pay-expanding-reach-in-india-2020-2?IR=T">WhatsApp Pay</a> services in the country. Being friends with the country’s richest man may prove to be useful. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/-mukesh-ambani-owned-reliance-jio-loses-customers-but-makes-2-billion-in-3-months/articleshow/73335783.cms">Three-year-old Jio is now making $2 billion in 3 months ⁠— and it is weeding out the low-spenders and making data addicts pay more</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/mukesh-ambanis-reliance-jio-becomes-the-largest-telco-by-revenue-and-subscribers-as-industry-shows-signs-of-recovery/articleshow/73667566.cms">Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio becomes the largest telco by revenue and subscribers - as industry shows signs of recovery</a>

Facebook's next investment in India may be Mark Zuckerberg's most important — in Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani

<ul><li><keyword id="736869" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Facebook-India">Facebook India</keyword>’s Managing Director, <keyword id="3056724" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ajit-Mohan">Ajit Mohan</keyword>, highlights three ways that <keyword id="530191" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="technology-startups">technology startups</keyword> in India need to transform.</li><li>Bridging the gender divide, expanding financial inclusion and focusing on job creation is how startups can help the Indian economy hit its goal of $5 trillion. </li><li>Tech giants, like Facebook, can play their part by directly investing in technology startups.</li></ul> Ajit Mohan, the Managing Director of Facebook India, was a part of Hotstar’s growth story, seven years back. Having been a part of the start-up economy, Mohan believes that its time for them to create an impact after an explosion in connectivity and Internet users. "I would suggest that a company like Facebook and my colleagues at IAMAI will now have to fundamentally shift to say — let’s show the goods to drive real impact," stated Mohan at the Huddle Kerala startup event. He highlighted three ways in which he thinks that technology start ups can transform — bridging the gender divide, bringing about financial inclusion, and focusing on job creation. Bringing more women online In India, only 30-35% of the connected population is women. The World Economic Forum as estimated that the country can add up to $770 billion to its GDP by 2025, by providing opportunities for women — especially in the technology industry. "It can be a massive lever for opening up opportunities," said Mohan. According to him, one of the biggest barriers to women coming online are safety and privacy concerns. In a lot of places, men even serve as gatekeepers to women accessing the Internet. "I think all of this means that, in terms of the products we design and how we think about the ecosystem, we now have to put the agenda of breaking the gender divide front and center," explained Mohan. Financial inclusion Financial inclusion is a key indicator of development and India has made considerable progress over the past few years — but it still has a long way to go. "It’s very clear that there’s an opportunity to bring the unbanked into the financial services flows in a way that was not cost effective for financial institutions three years ago," said Mohan. According to him, this doesn’t only pertain to consumers in Tier II and Tier III cities but also to the unconnected in urban areas. People who are not yet a part of the financial net are an untapped resource for the Indian economy’s goal to hit $5 trillion. "A big boost would just be making sure the startup ecosystem is able to introduce a whole new segment of consumers," explained Mohan. Honing in on job creation through entrepreneurship Unemployed is a growing problem in India and startups could be one possible solution to ease the pressure. Job creation from small businesses saw a growth of 13.9% over the last four years, according to a CII survey. And within the spectrum of small businesses, startups are ‘critical’, according to Mohan. The industry as a whole and tech giants individually, including Facebook, need to contribute to the concept of entrepreneurship. "Any analysis of any economy, anywhere around the world, including large economies like the US and Europe, the one clear signal is that most of the job creation happens from small businesses," explained Mohan. What is Facebook doing? Mohan said that Facebook is doing its part by showing a willingness to make direct investments in startups. Earlier this year, the company invested in Meesho, which allows women entrepreneurs to pitch products to their friends and family. Facebook is also using Spark Augmented Reality to help developers create new solutions, which Mohan believes has the potential for multiple use cases. "Overall point is, there is now a willingness to invest in tech startups," said Mohan.

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