Small businesses have played an unparalleled role in scripting India’s massive growth story over the last few years and are becoming increasingly important in building the country’s digital future. Despite the uncertainties of the last two years, small businesses have shown tremendous resilience by building business models that are being scaled across the country and even globally. As a result, we launched a flagship Grow Your Business Summit for small businesses in India last year.
This year’s Summit celebrates powerful ideas and stories of small businesses from across the country, especially direct-to-consumers businesses, women entrepreneurs and businesses in small towns. While the contribution of small businesses remains unquestionable to India’s growth story, we are also deeply aware of the challenges that many of them face as they scale their businesses.
No Cost EMI
Access to working capital remains a critical need for small businesses in India. Our State of Small Business Report from earlier this year showed that 20% of operational SMBs using Facebook in India expected challenges related to cash flow.
Over the last three years, we have been committed to enabling easier access to timely credit. In 2020, grants were announced for small businesses across five cities in India as part of a USD 100 million global grant. While this was rolled out primarily to support small businesses during an exceptionally difficult year, we realized that more needed to be done.
In 2021, we launched the Small Business Loans Initiative, a program that enables business loans for our small business advertisers through third-party lending platforms. India was the first country in which we launched this initiative.
At this year’s Grow Your Business Summit, we have announced that the scope of the Small Business Loans Initiative has now expanded to more than 19,000 pin codes across India, which is almost the entire length and breadth of the country. This means that advertisers from even the smallest towns and villages can now apply for collateral-free business loans from as little as INR 30,000 (approximately USD 375) to as much as INR 1 Crore (approximately USD 125,000).
This year, we announced a new financial support feature to ease cash flow for businesses in India — No Cost Equated Monthly Installments (EMI). This allows advertisers to pay for their advertising campaigns in three-month installments at no additional cost of interest to them. To support the growth journey of these advertisers, we will bear the interest amount payable to the bank and give it as an upfront discount to the business on their ad payments. With the No Cost EMI payment method, businesses can choose any amount between INR 3,200 (approximately USD 40) and INR 5,00,000 (approximately USD 6250) to convert to EMIs and decide when they need it as per their requirements. You can read more about No Cost EMI here.
“With these announcements, every advertiser on Meta in India, irrespective of their ad spends, has access to service and financial support, at the click of a button to unlock new growth opportunities. We know that each business is on a distinct journey and we are committed to building India-focused solutions keeping in mind their unique needs. We hope that the initiatives that we have announced during Grow Your Business Summit will help small businesses achieve their business goals with greater flexibility and ease.”
Ajit Mohan, VP and MD (Facebook India) Meta
24/7 Service Support for Advertisers
Several small businesses that have shifted a large part of their business online over the last two years have told us they want more support channels to address their queries and needs. The Grow Your Business Summit also highlighted the 24/7 chat support for all our active advertisers in India. This means that day or night, 365 days a year, they can get the support they need. To access this support, they can visit the ‘support’ option on the Meta Business Help Center.
More than 200 million businesses around the world use our technologies every month to create virtual storefronts and reach their customers. Our goal is to continue taking the power of digital to every business in India, and we’ll continue to build solutions that empower small businesses and early entrepreneurs to build for the future.
