Amid the global capital crunch start-ups are facing, Meta today announced that it had partnered with leading VC fund Kalaari Capital to upskill and scale young businesses by providing them with skilling support.
Kicking off the event, Vani Kola, Founder and Managing Director, Kalaari Capital said, “I think if you haven’t felt it already, there is a capital crunch right? In my career, I have seen this happen 4-5 times, and you have to sort of say that it passes. What you need to think as a founder is how do I put my business in a better place for survival? Am I at a place to take advantage of this opportunity? Maybe there is some consolidation you can do, maybe there is a product opportunity that it presents. One thing I can say is, if you are running business, as usual, you have not really grasped the reality.”
The partnership is a part of Meta’s VC Brand Incubator Initiative for building the ecosystem for small business growth in the country along with leading venture capital funds. Meta’s partnership with Kalarai will be the sixteenth such partnership for the company in the span of three years.
According to Meta, as part of the initiative, it has successfully trained and mentored more than 500 small businesses at various growth stages. It noted that the timely business and customisable training provided through the initiative will aid start-ups in improving key profitability levers such as new customer acquisition, reach and brand engagement
‘Thrilled to partner’
Talking about the partnership with Kalaari Capital, Ajit Mohan, VP and MD at Meta in India, said, “The VC Brand Incubator program is geared towards unlocking the potential of small businesses in India by enabling early-stage, invested businesses to scale rapidly. As part of this initiative, Meta has partnered with India’s largest VC funds, and in the last three years, some of India’s fastest-growing start-ups have been a part of this program. We are thrilled to now partner with Kalaari Capital that has been instrumental in the growth journey of many start-ups.”
Kalaari Capital is an early-stage, technology-focused venture capital firm based in Bengaluru, India. Since 2006, Kalaari has empowered visionary entrepreneurs building unique solutions to shape the way Indians live, work, consume and transact.
Vani Kola added, “Indian start-ups are powerful agents of economic growth and social change. I’m incredibly excited by their potential to drive India’s progress as a global epicenter for innovation. As start-ups scale, they need to leverage several tools and platforms like Meta to support their growth. We are delighted to partner with Meta’s VC Brand Incubator as we look to collectively enable this digital ecosystem and turbocharge the growth of our early-stage companies.”
As part of this special edition of VC Brand Incubator initiative with Kalaari Capital, Meta is going to have several young, invested businesses from emerging sectors such as ed-tech, social commerce, gaming, fin-tech, among others participate in the initiative.