Facebook plans to boost investment in Indian innovative start-ups

'We will have exciting things to share over the next few months (on Jio Mart-WhatsApp collaboration)', said Ajit Mohan

Facebook is open to making more minority equity investments in Indian start-ups if they are based on innovation and have business models which can go global. Facebook India Managing Director Ajit Mohan, in an interview with Business Standard, said there would be more announcements on investments. 

“We are looking at founders that we are excited by, at companies which have innovation at their heart, and a business model which can go global. We are not focused on any particular sector and that is reflected in the fact that our two investments in Unacademy and Meesho are in different areas,” said Mohan.

His remarks came right after the news that e-commerce platform Meesho had hit a valuation of $4.1 billion following a fresh round of funding of $570 million.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Mohan explained why Facebook had been slow to push WhatsApp Pay and the direction that its collaboration with Jio Mart was taking.  

On WhatsApp Pay’s slow pace one year after its launch, Mohan said Facebook was taking it ‘slow and steady’. He added: “The reason is that WhatsApp probably has the deepest engagement with Indians (the subscriber base is 400 million) and the popularity of the app is because the experience is very easy and intuitive with the promise of safety and privacy. We want the same ethos in WhatsApp Pay also and that is why we are doing a lot of pilots and experimentation.” 

He said the effort to create awareness had already started. For instance, it is creating awareness by starting to do nudges within the app. In a few months, the app will start being marketed. The company is also working on using visual cues to accompany the payment.  

“We know that when a payment is happening between one person to another, it is not only a financial transaction but also has a lot of soul or emotion in it, such as a brother sending his sister money during rakhi. How do we make this come alive through visual cues?” said Mohan.

Facebook received permission from the National Payments Corporation of India to roll out its payment offering but its subscriber base was capped at 20 million for the time being.  

On the collaboration between Jio Mart and WhatsApp (Facebook is the largest foreign investor in Jio Platforms), Mohan said that work was in full swing. 

“We will have exciting things to share over the next few months. But like in payments, we wanted to get the experience right as we are solving a problem that has utility for both consumers and value for the kirana shop owner. It will become an income generator for the latter and make it easy for the consumers to order from a local store on WhatsApp,” he said. 

On the implementation of the government’s new rules intended to regulate online content, Mohan said Facebook had already signalled its willingness to comply with them some time ago. The company has appointed officers as required by the rules and is coming out with a transparency report every month.

Asked how the rules are different from those in the US and elsewhere, Mohan said the monthly report was specific to India.

“There are not too many countries around the world that I know of where there is a need for a monthly report. But it is a great opportunity for us to be transparent. And an opportunity to put a spotlight on the work we are doing for the safety of users,” he said.