CIIE.CO's Bharat Inclusion Initiative Invites Application From FinTech Startups for Its 6th Financial Inclusion Lab Cohort

The last date to submit applications for the cohort is 8th May 2022.

CIIE.CO’s Bharat Inclusion Initiative (BII) announced the sixth cohort of Financial Inclusion (FI) Lab to support innovations that aid in making mainstream financial products more inclusive for low-and-middle-income households and women.

FI Lab seeks to support startups and entrepreneurs building for low and middle income (LMI) segments in purpose-driven areas across FinTech, Livelihood, and skilling. The initiative is establishing an ecosystem of entrepreneurs and supporters who are building for Bharat, envisioning innovative, technology-enabled solutions for underserved communities.

Inviting applications for the 6th cohort, the FI lab will offer contextualised bouquet of services including capital support upto INR 25 Lakh for market validation and investor connects alongside expert guidance, technical assistance by MSC Consulting and service partner support worth over INR 50 Lakh.

Key focus areas for this cohort include embedded fintech serving industries such as dairy, agri, construction, skilling etc., solutions that are facilitating savings in financial assets that enable protection against uncertainties and exigencies, and products that are built for scale. The cohort is particularly interested in solutions that are contextualised to the needs of women.

Some successful startups who were a part of the 5th cohort included startups such as CreditHaat, Qonect, FLYK, Microfinance.ai, Arboreum, MissCallPay, Mool, GreyMatter and Yes!poho that are building inclusive credit, savings, payments and livelihood solutions.

Startups selected to the 6th FI Lab cohort can gain guidance from FI Lab’s exclusive Network of 100+ founders and an opportunity to access seed capital via Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund.

Commenting on the Cohort, Priyanka Chopra, COO at CIIE.CO, said “The Financial Inclusion Lab is a critical component of the Bharat Inclusion Initiative ecosystem that we have built over the last five cohorts with our partners. We look forward to supporting the sixth cohort with our networks, experience and expertise to help these startups in their scale-up journey"

To date, CIIE.CO’s BII has supported 42 startups with the last five FI Lab cohorts. Post participation, these 42 startups have cumulatively raised over $80 million in funding and have served over 30 million customers.

Building an ecosystem of entrepreneurs who are building solutions for Bharat, Bharat Inclusion Initiative (BII) is serving domain knowledge, training, financial support, mentorship and market access they need to bring inclusive, for-profit businesses to life. It supports businesses serving the Indian mass market through programs, fellowships and funding where possible.

CIIE.CO’s Bharat Inclusion Initiative is supported by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, J. P. Morgan, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, MetLife Foundation, Omidyar Network, and is run in collaboration with MSC Consulting.

For more information or to apply for the program, please visit - https://go.ciie.co/3wTybjS

About CIIE.CO

CIIE CO is the Innovation Continuum spreading from incubation, acceleration, seed, and growth funding to research. Founded at IIM Ahmedabad in 2002, as an academic centre, it has since grown and pivoted to fill the multiple, ever-evolving gaps in the innovation-driven entrepreneurship space in India. Among its various initiatives, CIIE.CO has conceptualised and hosted India’s first and only CleanTech-focused fund, accelerated over 1000 startups, funded over 300 startups, inspired over a million with their publication - Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.

The Bharat Inclusion Initiative (BII) is an effort towards bringing the benefits of technological progress to underserved populations. Led by CIIE.CO, the initiative is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, J.P. Morgan, MetLife Foundation, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Omidyar Network. The Initiative focuses on incubating and backing startups that work in areas such as financial inclusion, livelihood, skilling, and health.

All startups supported by the Initiative are expected to be using technology as leverage to increase reach and build products that serve the underserved. For ambitious entrepreneurs working on problems of the Bharat market, the Bharat Inclusion Initiative provides domain knowledge, training, financial support, mentorship and market access they need to bring inclusive, for-profit businesses to life. It supports businesses serving the Indian mass market through programs, fellowships and funding where possible.

InsurTech Startup Riskcovry Raises Funding from Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund and co-led by Varanium Capital, Better Capital

Mumbai based InsurTech Platform startup, Riskcovry, confirmed today that they have closed their Pre-Series-A round led by Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund, which also saw participation from Varanium Capital and Better Capital.

Riskcovry considers itself as a neo-insurer providing "insurance-in-a-box" solution, which allows any business with a large captive user base to enable distribution of insurance to their users in an end-to-end fashion. The company has taken the payment gateway (PG) approach of enabling insurance as a financial services layer to any business.  Just like a PG cuts across multiple payment instruments (cards, UPI, wallet etc.) and issuers, Riskcovry enables the distribution of multiple insurance products across insurers (Health, General and Life) with plug-and-play infra to support any distribution use-case, for existing or new customers, completely digitally as a “one-stop-shop".

The startup was incorporated in 2018 by the founders, Suvendu Prusty, Sorabh Bhandari and Chiranth Patil. Suvendu and Sorabh are ex-insurance industry execs who built the distribution books of two insurers, whereas Chiranth is a two-time founder who comes from a fintech & strategy background.  Vidya Sridharan is also a co-founder and CTO, and brings in deep technology experience.

The founders issued a joint statement, "As a startup, we get a chance to dream big and back it up with our execution chops.  We dream of a time when insurance is truly democratized for all Indians.  We figured that an inclusive model that connects various players in the insurance industry is win-win and scalable.  For this, we needed to organise the insurance value chain by way of technology, which makes it easy for various types of products to be distributed.  

We serve our distribution partner community by essentially being that unified solution for them to do anything insurance.  This means not just enabling for ‘purchase’, but also two other touchpoints their end-users typically have with providers as part of insurance life-cycle i.e., ‘manage’ and ‘claims’, all digital, and on-demand.

We are super excited to be partnering with the Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund, Varanium Capital and Better Capital for our Pre-Series-A round.  We embrace mutual thesis around intersecting inclusive insurance ecosystems with new-age technology tools and look forward to working with them closely as we accelerate into the next stage of our company’s evolution.  This round will help us scale on our product-market fit, and serve more enterprise customers across segments that enable both mainstream and alternative insurance distribution.  We look forward to building out our technology, product, data sciences, sales and growth teams.”  

Saras Agarwal, Principal at Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund added, “Riskcovry brings a fresh approach to digital distribution for the insurance market.  Their API-first approach helps enterprise customers get access to highly relevant insurance products, through a completely digital process of underwriting, policy issuance, claim settlement and compliance. This extends the reach for insurance companies and provides downside protection to many end-users of enterprise customers at a very reasonable price point.  We are very excited to support the team on this journey!"

Riskcovry falls into the “financial infrastructure” bucket, essentially, a startup space that enables the ‘rails’ or ‘pipes’ that connect various payers within the industry’s value chain via APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) in order to seamlessly interact with each other. 

Of late, this space has seen conviction from many financial and strategic corporate investors.  Some noteworthy deals in India include Payments & Cards Infra Provider M2P’s recent Series-A of $4.5M led by BeeNext and FinTech Infra company Setu’s Series-A of $15M led by LightSpeed with co-investment from Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund among others.  Globally speaking, US headquartered payment network VISA acquired Plaid for $5.3B, a Silicon Valley based FinTech company that enables applications to connect to users’ bank accounts via APIs. 

Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund is an early-stage venture capital fund, that supports ventures leveraging technology to build inclusive solutions for India’s next half billion. The fund invests at the idea, seed or pre-series-A stage in high impact sectors such as finance, health, education and livelihood.

The fund is built on a decade-long start-up engagement experience and deep-rooted network of IIM-Ahmedabad’s CIIE.CO, which has been running leading accelerator programs and seed-funds in India since 2008.

Riskcovry InsurTech Platform is an omni-channel insurance distribution technology company.  It bridges the gap between demand-side distribution and supply-side manufacturing sides of the insurance value chain, by providing product innovation & commercialization, omni-channel distribution technology & data analytics.  Current customers include Banks, FinTechs, eCommerce, Digital, NBFCs, Brokers, BCs, HRTech, HealthTech and Supply-Chain companies.  

J.P. Morgan, CIIE-IIMA To Launch $9.5 Mn Financial Inclusion Lab in India for Fintech Startups in Early-Stage

Global banking and financial services provider J.P. Morgan has collaboated with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) affiliated Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) to set up a Financial Inclusion Lab (FIL) that will focus on early-stage fintech startups with innovations that address the unique needs of the lower and middle income (LMI) segment.

Under this US$9.5 million FIL initiative, J.P. Morgan has committed $7 million over the next four years while rest will be borne by IIM-A's CIIE. The initiative is aimed at identifying and bringing to scale early-stage fintech start-ups that are focused on helping people in India within the lower and middle income (LMI) segment who earn US$2-US$10 a day. The start-ups will enable access and usage of appropriate financial products and services such as savings, credit and insurance for LMI households.

The Lab is part of IIMA-CIIE’s Bharat Inclusion Initiative (BII), a program launched in May that aims to incubate and support start-ups that are focused on developing technologies that can be used for the benefit of underserved communities in the areas of livelihoods, financial inclusion, health and education. J.P. Morgan will provide up to US$7 million over the next four years towards this initiative. This would be the largest philanthropic commitment made by J.P. Morgan outside of the U.S. Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are also supporting the Lab as part of their overall commitment to BII.

The Lab will draw insights and learnings from the work performed by the JPMorgan Chase-funded Financial Solutions Lab, a five-year program launched in the U.S. in 2014 and managed by the Center for Financial Services Innovation. Over the past four years, this initiative has supported the development and scaling of fintech solutions that have improved the financial wellbeing of underserved communities in the U.S. To date, participating fintechs have reached over 2.5 million Americans and have seen their users grow 20 times since joining the program.

“India’s vision of creating digital technology driven access to financial services will be incomplete unless we bring these offerings to the lower and middle income segments who are in urgent need of these financial products and services. Our initiative aims to identify and nurture fintech start-ups to generate innovative ideas which will help make financial products and services more accessible to this critical mass of Indians. JPMorgan Chase’s Financial Solutions Lab model is being introduced outside of the U.S for the first time. We are pleased to collaborate with CIIE’s Bharat Inclusion Initiative to help establish it in India,” said Kalpana Morparia, CEO, South and South East Asia, J.P. Morgan.

The initiative will also glean insights from international financial inclusion consulting firm MicroSave and CIIE on where and how fintechs can help the LMI segment. Recent research conducted by CIIE and MicroSave revealed that LMI households have erratic financial inflows and many in the LMI segment struggle to adopt digital platforms for their financial needs. “Over 80 per cent of the addressable LMI market, or 470 million people, are not integrated into the economic mainstream. Early stage fintechs, when provided with the right mentoring, insights and capital support, can have a huge and positive impact on the lives of many people,” said Anil Gupta, Associate Director, MicroSave.

The Lab will host a series of accelerator programs to identify solutions for specific financial challenges, and leading ideas will be supported with start-up capital, market access, technical assistance, mentoring and sector expertise. Fintech entrepreneurs are now being invited to apply to join the Lab.

“The Financial Inclusion Lab is a critical component of the Bharat Inclusion Initiative continuum and will build upon CIIE’s decade long experience of running incubators, accelerators and impact funds to provide inclusion focused tech entrepreneurs the comprehensive support required to turbocharge their journeys. We are excited to partner with J.P. Morgan to create access and opportunity for more people to join the financial mainstream by unlocking entrepreneurial energy,” said Priyanka Chopra, COO, CIIE.

Last month, CIIE has made the first close of $150 million Bharat Innovations Fund, which was a href="http://indianweb2/2016/07/08/iim-incubators-plans-raise-150m-bharat-innovations-fund-invests-clean-tech-startups/">announced in July 2016.

In May 2018, the BII announced support from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Omidyar Network towards backing start-ups leveraging the ongoing digital transformation in India to create access to services that were hitherto inaccessible for a large segment of Indians.

Additionally, in an another welcome move of a foreign nation towards Indian startups, Bahrain is also welcoming startups and venture capitalists from India to access it's startup ecosystem. Bahrains Economic Development Board has already set up its office in Mumbai to accelerate its fintech development program and even launched a new fintech fund to invest in Indian startups that have an economic interest in Bahrain.

Source - Business Wire India

J.P. Morgan, CIIE-IIMA To Launch $9.5 Mn Financial Inclusion Lab in India for Fintech Startups in Early-Stage

Global banking and financial services provider J.P. Morgan has collaboated with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) affiliated Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) to set up a Financial Inclusion Lab (FIL) that will focus on early-stage fintech startups with innovations that address the unique needs of the lower and middle income (LMI) segment.

Under this US$9.5 million FIL initiative, J.P. Morgan has committed $7 million over the next four years while rest will be borne by IIM-A's CIIE. The initiative is aimed at identifying and bringing to scale early-stage fintech start-ups that are focused on helping people in India within the lower and middle income (LMI) segment who earn US$2-US$10 a day. The start-ups will enable access and usage of appropriate financial products and services such as savings, credit and insurance for LMI households.

The Lab is part of IIMA-CIIE’s Bharat Inclusion Initiative (BII), a program launched in May that aims to incubate and support start-ups that are focused on developing technologies that can be used for the benefit of underserved communities in the areas of livelihoods, financial inclusion, health and education. J.P. Morgan will provide up to US$7 million over the next four years towards this initiative. This would be the largest philanthropic commitment made by J.P. Morgan outside of the U.S. Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are also supporting the Lab as part of their overall commitment to BII.

The Lab will draw insights and learnings from the work performed by the JPMorgan Chase-funded Financial Solutions Lab, a five-year program launched in the U.S. in 2014 and managed by the Center for Financial Services Innovation. Over the past four years, this initiative has supported the development and scaling of fintech solutions that have improved the financial wellbeing of underserved communities in the U.S. To date, participating fintechs have reached over 2.5 million Americans and have seen their users grow 20 times since joining the program.

“India’s vision of creating digital technology driven access to financial services will be incomplete unless we bring these offerings to the lower and middle income segments who are in urgent need of these financial products and services. Our initiative aims to identify and nurture fintech start-ups to generate innovative ideas which will help make financial products and services more accessible to this critical mass of Indians. JPMorgan Chase’s Financial Solutions Lab model is being introduced outside of the U.S for the first time. We are pleased to collaborate with CIIE’s Bharat Inclusion Initiative to help establish it in India,” said Kalpana Morparia, CEO, South and South East Asia, J.P. Morgan.

The initiative will also glean insights from international financial inclusion consulting firm MicroSave and CIIE on where and how fintechs can help the LMI segment. Recent research conducted by CIIE and MicroSave revealed that LMI households have erratic financial inflows and many in the LMI segment struggle to adopt digital platforms for their financial needs. “Over 80 per cent of the addressable LMI market, or 470 million people, are not integrated into the economic mainstream. Early stage fintechs, when provided with the right mentoring, insights and capital support, can have a huge and positive impact on the lives of many people,” said Anil Gupta, Associate Director, MicroSave.

The Lab will host a series of accelerator programs to identify solutions for specific financial challenges, and leading ideas will be supported with start-up capital, market access, technical assistance, mentoring and sector expertise. Fintech entrepreneurs are now being invited to apply to join the Lab.

“The Financial Inclusion Lab is a critical component of the Bharat Inclusion Initiative continuum and will build upon CIIE’s decade long experience of running incubators, accelerators and impact funds to provide inclusion focused tech entrepreneurs the comprehensive support required to turbocharge their journeys. We are excited to partner with J.P. Morgan to create access and opportunity for more people to join the financial mainstream by unlocking entrepreneurial energy,” said Priyanka Chopra, COO, CIIE.

Last month, CIIE has made the first close of $150 million Bharat Innovations Fund, which was a href="https://www.indianweb2.com/2016/07/08/iim-incubators-plans-raise-150m-bharat-innovations-fund-invests-clean-tech-startups/">announced in July 2016.

In May 2018, the BII announced support from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Omidyar Network towards backing start-ups leveraging the ongoing digital transformation in India to create access to services that were hitherto inaccessible for a large segment of Indians.

Additionally, in an another welcome move of a foreign nation towards Indian startups, Bahrain is also welcoming startups and venture capitalists from India to access it's startup ecosystem. Bahrains Economic Development Board has already set up its office in Mumbai to accelerate its fintech development program and even launched a new fintech fund to invest in Indian startups that have an economic interest in Bahrain.

Source - Business Wire India

IIM-Ahmedabad Centre Launches $25 Mn Seed Fund To Invest in Tech Startups

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s (IIMA’s) centre for innovation, incubation, and entrepreneurship (CIIE) has launched a US$25 million seed fund named 'Bharat Inclusion Initiative', which aims to mentor and invest in early stage tech startups over the next three-four years, reported Economic Times.

The initiative will focus on incubating and backing startups that work in areas such as financial inclusion, livelihood, education and health.

With seed support from Tata Trusts, the initiative has received an initial commitment of $12.5 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and Omidyar Network. This includes a $5 million commitment for providing catalytic support to start-ups through a series of acceleration programmes, focused research, training workshops and piloting partnerships. In addition, CIIE will also invest in seed and pre-Series-A start-ups through a dedicated Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund - which announced its initial closing at $7.5 million, and is expected to make a final close at $15 million by July, 2018.

“The Bharat Inclusion Initiative aims to provide a continuum of solutions to inclusion-focused tech entrepreneurs across the pre-incubation, seed and scale-up stage and help them jump to the next orbit. It is heartening to see the support for this initiative from all the partners,” said Neharika Vohra, chairperson, CIIE Initiatives.

Pawan Bakhshi, India Lead, Financial Services for the Poor, at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said, "At Gates Foundation, we are committed to creating a disproportionate and sustained impact on some of the most critical challenges facing the nation today."

Through in-depth research to build knowledge about the under-served, incubating new start-ups in this space and providing access to soft and patient capital as these ventures take root, the Bharat Inclusion Initiative will seek to catalyse entrepreneurs who are building disruptive solutions for Bharat.

According to Santhosh Ramdoss, director, India programmes, at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, a large portion of urban poor families in India do not have any formal access to financial services. “We are presented with a landmark opportunity to take on this challenge, given India’s leadership in building a cutting-edge public technology infrastructure that can be used to seamlessly deliver a variety of critical digital services to low-income families."

Speaking about Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, in February, the foundation has led the $13.5 million (~ Rs 87 crore) funding of Bengaluru based edtech startup IMAX Program.

In August 2017, it was reported that the foundation is looking to launch incubator for startups in India. And for same, the foundation is reportedly in talks with IIM-Ahmedabad’s CIIE.

CIIE was founded to support entrepreneurs and turn business ideas into viable businesses models. It partners with industry experts, mentors, corporates, IIMA community and investors to help incubate early-stage start-ups.

In the past, CIIE incubated startups include Razorpay, Hashcube, Rolocule, and Thrillophilia, among others. In 2015, the centre had launched India’s first Food & Agri-Business accelerator for startups in food and agri-business sector.

IIM-Ahmedabad Centre Launches $25 Mn Seed Fund To Invest in Tech Startups

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s (IIMA’s) centre for innovation, incubation, and entrepreneurship (CIIE) has launched a US$25 million seed fund named 'Bharat Inclusion Initiative', which aims to mentor and invest in early stage tech startups over the next three-four years, reported Economic Times.

The initiative will focus on incubating and backing startups that work in areas such as financial inclusion, livelihood, education and health.

With seed support from Tata Trusts, the initiative has received an initial commitment of $12.5 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and Omidyar Network. This includes a $5 million commitment for providing catalytic support to start-ups through a series of acceleration programmes, focused research, training workshops and piloting partnerships. In addition, CIIE will also invest in seed and pre-Series-A start-ups through a dedicated Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund - which announced its initial closing at $7.5 million, and is expected to make a final close at $15 million by July, 2018.

“The Bharat Inclusion Initiative aims to provide a continuum of solutions to inclusion-focused tech entrepreneurs across the pre-incubation, seed and scale-up stage and help them jump to the next orbit. It is heartening to see the support for this initiative from all the partners,” said Neharika Vohra, chairperson, CIIE Initiatives.

Pawan Bakhshi, India Lead, Financial Services for the Poor, at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said, "At Gates Foundation, we are committed to creating a disproportionate and sustained impact on some of the most critical challenges facing the nation today."

Through in-depth research to build knowledge about the under-served, incubating new start-ups in this space and providing access to soft and patient capital as these ventures take root, the Bharat Inclusion Initiative will seek to catalyse entrepreneurs who are building disruptive solutions for Bharat.

According to Santhosh Ramdoss, director, India programmes, at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, a large portion of urban poor families in India do not have any formal access to financial services. “We are presented with a landmark opportunity to take on this challenge, given India’s leadership in building a cutting-edge public technology infrastructure that can be used to seamlessly deliver a variety of critical digital services to low-income families."

Speaking about Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, in February, the foundation has led the $13.5 million (~ Rs 87 crore) funding of Bengaluru based edtech startup IMAX Program.

In August 2017, it was reported that the foundation is looking to launch incubator for startups in India. And for same, the foundation is reportedly in talks with IIM-Ahmedabad’s CIIE.

CIIE was founded to support entrepreneurs and turn business ideas into viable businesses models. It partners with industry experts, mentors, corporates, IIMA community and investors to help incubate early-stage start-ups.

In the past, CIIE incubated startups include Razorpay, Hashcube, Rolocule, and Thrillophilia, among others. In 2015, the centre had launched India’s first Food & Agri-Business accelerator for startups in food and agri-business sector.