Facebook teams up with early-stage VC fund Matrix Partners to help SMBs in India

Facebook on Thursday announced a partnership with early-stage VC fund Matrix Partners. The partnership is aimed at helping small businesses in India scale leveraging digital skilling support.

Facebook revealed that the partnership with Matrix Partners is a part of the company’s VC Brand Incubator programme. The initiative involves collaborating with venture capital funds to assist early-stage small and medium businesses. The programme has now completed one year in India.

So far, Facebook has partnered with VC Funds - Sauce.VC, Fireside Ventures, SAIF Partners, Sequoia Capital, DSG Ventures, and Matrix Partners India. As part of the VC Brand Incubator programme, Facebook has also launched a campaign Lab that will assist direct-to-consumer small businesses get creative solutioning support and go live with mobile-friendly creatives and strategy in under 72 hours.

Matrix Partners India has also worked various SMBs in India which specialise in sectors such as consumer technology, fintech, B2B, enterprise among others. It has worked with the likes of Ola, Quikr, Practo, Dailyhunt, Mswipe, Country Delight, and Razorpay among others.

The latest partnership comes days after Facebook launched $4.3 million grant programme for SMBs in India. The programme will include both cash and ad credits.

Sanjot Malhi, Director, Matrix India, said, “We’re excited to create a platform of partnership between our portfolio companies and Facebook. Brand building is a crucial part of growing and scaling your company, and Facebook’s incubator program is a great stepping stone for early stage consumer-focused companies who are looking to build awareness and engagement with a digital audience.”

“We’ve been early backers in many challenger brands from across the spectrum – eCommerce, gaming, CPG, neo-banking, healthcare, content – to name a few, and we’re thrilled to see them create world-beating products and leverage Facebook’s platform to reach their end consumers, and bring about large scale impact. Over 20 companies from our portfolio, including Country Delight, Stanza Living, OZiva, ManMatters, Zupee, The Whole Truth, Dealshare, have now partnered with Facebook on this programme,” Malhi added.