Indian app IamHere is way for an Atmanirbhar Bharat with its community platform

Earlier in May, when our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi announced the “Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan”, he talked about the five pillars of a self-reliant India – Economy, Infrastructure, System, Demography and Demand.

Amidst the growing tensions on the Indo-China border, when the Government of India banned 59 Chinese apps citing security reasons and followed that up with identifying another 47 apps, the road was cleared up for Indian apps to lead the clarion call for an Atmanirbhar Bharat.

On Jul 4, Mr. Modi announced the “Atmanirbhar App Challenge” and said, “There is immense enthusiasm among the tech and start-up community today to create world class made-in-India apps”, and he spelled out his vision to create an “Atmanirbhar App Ecosystem”. That is exactly what an Indian app, IamHere (www.iamhere.mobi) is doing with its community platform. IamHere is a unique AI-powered location-first social network connecting people within neighbourhoods and within communities for social collaboration and social commerce.

Let's see what Naren Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO of IamHere. says:

“You could be a singer trying to collaborate with musicians near you, you could be an artist trying to sell in your neighbourhood, you could be an NGO engaging with volunteers near you, IamHere provides you a powerful hyperlocal social network for you to do that”

Pratik Khade, Co-Founder & CTO of IamHere:

“Our engagement numbers have more than doubled in the last few months. While pre-COVID, our users were forming sports teams, music bands, dance groups and travel gangs through the app, today they are purchasing farm produce, they are buying and sell within neighbourhoods, they are hiring doorstep services, all through the app. For example, I hired a laptop technician from my neighbourhood last week through the IamHere app”

IamHere is a one of its kind app that does not find many replicas across the world. To be able to bridge location-based technologies with the social networking models and provide meaningful engagement for both public and private communities, the IamHere team has got to be doing something right. Let us hope the app not only becomes a leader in the Indian market, but also takes Indian technology to the global stage, something that our country’s leadership has been talking about. Perhaps the time has come now!

Surge Founders Participate In the Latest Edition of Facebook VC Brand Incubator

Strengthening its commitment to accelerate the growth of small and medium businesses (SMBs) and entrepreneurship in the country, Facebook today announced the next edition of the VC Brand Incubator Initiative with Surge, Sequoia Capital India’s rapid scale up program. The VC Brand Incubator Initiative was launched in 2019 as an industry-first initiative by Facebook in a bid to accelerate the growth of early-stage SMBs in India by collaborating with Venture Capital funds.

The VC Brand Incubator Initiative is part of Facebook’s vision to build a more conducive environment for SMB growth in the country. Working with venture capital funds is an integral part of this vision as it allows Facebook to scale and support SMBs at an early-stage itself, fast-tracking their growth.

Surge aims to supercharge the early-stage journey for startups, by enabling disproportionate access to capital, talent, network, and decades of company-building knowledge. Surge combines $1 million to $2 million of seed capital with company-building workshops, global immersion trips, and support from a community of exceptional founders.

Let's see what official's word about this:

Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India LLP :

“Surge is building a platform to unlock best-in-class learning for founders across sectors, countries and domains, enabling them to make the right design choices in the early-stages of company-building. With the VC Brand Incubator our aim is to help our brands gain more insights into leveraging the Facebook family of apps for growth”

Archana Vohra, Director, Small and Medium Businesses at Facebook India, said:

“We know from our experience with 140 million small businesses across the globe that timely skilling and mentorship are critical for young brands to succeed. The knowledge sessions with Surge give us the unique opportunity to work with early-stage SMBs and entrepreneurs to unlock their true potential on digital while also enabling them to drive growth by being conscious of their business RoI.”