New Delhi, Jan 31 (IANS): In an effort to encourage entrepreneurs and small businesses in India, Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp on Thursday announced the "Startup India-WhatsApp Grand Challenge".

The top five start-ups will receive a total grant of $250,000, the company said in a statement.

"Ideas and business models capable of making a large-scale socio-economic impact and solve day-to-day problems have been invited to apply for the challenge by March 10," said WhatsApp.

The messaging app, with 1.3 billion global users and over 200 million users in India, has been working closely on its business platform for a year now.

Nearly one year after debuting the WhatsApp Business application, the app is now used by more than 5 million businesses monthly.

In India, 84 per cent of small and midsize business (SMBs) think that WhatsApp helps them communicate with customers, and 80 per cent of SMBs think that WhatsApp helps them grow their business.