Fintech CoE at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore Selects 10 Fintech Startups for Grants in partnership with HDFC Bank Parivartan

NSRCEL at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM Bangalore), through its Fintech Centre of Excellence (CoE) supported by the Government of Karnataka, has partnered with HDFC Bank Parivartan, the CSR arm of HDFC Bank, to support startups creating measurable financial impact in India.

The initiative supports early- and growth-stage fintech ventures building solutions across lending, payments, insurance, wealthtech, regtech, embedded finance, and allied domains. The collaboration combines grant support with strategic ecosystem access to help startups strengthen business fundamentals, improve market readiness, and expand access to formal financial services for underserved segments.

Startups were selected through an open call curated by NSRCEL, followed by a joint evaluation process conducted by NSRCEL and HDFC Bank. A total of 17 startups presented their innovations during the Demo Day, after which 10 startups were selected to receive grant support under the HDFC Bank Parivartan Program.

The startups selected for the grants include:

1. Entitled
2. Dhiway
3. Finsall
4. PropLegit
5. Lark Finserv
6. INKA
7. ValuEnable
8. GreenFi
9. Xaults
10. Saventh

“Fintech has the power to meaningfully expand financial access and resilience in India-but only when innovation is grounded in real, measurable outcomes. Through this partnership with HDFC Bank, NSRCEL’s Fintech Centre of Excellence is deploying CSR capital to help emerging fintech startups move beyond pilots to market adoption. Our focus is on enabling founders to build market-ready, compliant, and scalable solutions that address critical gaps across India’s financial landscape,” said Anand Sri Ganesh.

Beyond grant support, participating ventures will receive outcome-driven engagement tailored to their growth challenges. Founders will have access to on-demand expert support, closed-door interactions with regulators and industry leaders, conversations with successful founders, and curated introductions to investors and ecosystem partners. Each intervention will be aligned to measurable business outcomes, with regular check-ins to track progress and ensure continued relevance.

The Fintech Centre of Excellence at NSRCEL is designed to scale beyond a single cohort, with the vision of becoming a leading hub for fintech startups building in India and scaling globally. The CoE is deepening its focus across areas including MSME financing, CBDCs, embedded finance, wealthtech, and AI in finance.

Through initiatives such as the Fintech Clinic, the CoE continues to bring together startups, regulators, BFSI institutions, and technology players to address emerging opportunities and challenges in financial innovation.

By supporting high-potential fintech ventures, the initiative aims to strengthen India’s innovation pipeline and help promising companies transition from experimentation to long-term growth, contributing to broader financial inclusion and economic value creation.

PayU’s inFINity 3.0 Accelerator Shortlists 30 Startups, Unlocks Prosus Impact Grants for Financial Inclusion

PayU’s flagship fintech accelerator, inFINity 3.0, has leveled up to fuel the growth of fintech startups solving digital and financial inclusion challenges across India. The inFINity 3.0 cohort will be invited to co-create projects within the Prosus ecosystem and apply for impact grants of up to USD 25,000.

Announced in February 2026, inFINity 3.0 is the third edition of PayU’s fintech accelerator programme designed to help early-stage fintech startups transition from product build to market-ready, scalable businesses through a structured acceleration journey. The initiative drew strong interest from across the ecosystem, with over 600 applications. Following a highly competitive selection process, 30 promising fintech startups have been shortlisted to be part of the inFINity 3.0 cohort.

Startups focused on advancing digital and financial inclusion across underserved segments will have an opportunity to be eligible for impact grants from Prosus. Grants are available for innovations across four key areas:

• Women-led innovations - addressing gaps in credit, savings, healthcare, and safety
• Solutions for gig and informal workers - enabling income stability, credit access, and financial resilience. 
• Sustainability-led models - promoting long-term financial health and responsible growth
• Intersectional impact solutions – addressing multiple underserved segments such as women gig workers, rural entrepreneurs, and climate-vulnerable communities.

“India’s fintech ecosystem is at a pivotal moment, where innovation must translate into real, inclusive impact. Through our support to PayU’s inFINity 3.0, we aim to support founders who are building scalable impact solutions that expand access to digital and financial services for underserved communities within our ecosystem. Our focus is on enabling long-term, sustainable impact through capital, mentorship, and ecosystem access,” said Prajna Khanna, Chief Sustainability Officer, Prosus Group and Naspers Limited.

"Over the three editions, inFINity has grown into more than just a fintech accelerator - it's become our way of backing founders solving high-impact problems that truly matter. We're incredibly proud of this evolution", said Anirban Mukherjee, CEO, PayU. “By combining capital with ecosystem access, we aim to enable startups to build scalable solutions that can drive meaningful financial inclusion”

InFINity 3.0 will culminate in a Bootcamp and Demo Day in Bengaluru on April 22-23, 2026, bringing together founders, investors, and industry leaders.

The selected cohort in inFINity 3.0 will benefit from structured access to PayU’s payments infrastructure, merchant ecosystem, and banking partners, enabling faster pilots and real-world validation. The programme also includes mentorship from PayU leaders, fintech founders, and domain experts, along with exposure to investors and ecosystem enablers.

About PayU

PayU, India's leading diversified fintech platform with Prosus as an investor, operates businesses that are regulated by the Reserve Bank of India and offers advanced solutions to meet the digital financial services needs of customers (merchants, banks, and consumers).

PayU provides payment gateway solutions to online businesses through its cutting-edge and award-winning technology and has empowered 4.5 lakhs+ businesses, including India’s leading enterprises, e-commerce giants and SMBs. It enables businesses to collect digital payments across 100+ online payment methods such as Credit Cards, Debit Cards, Net Banking, EMIs, pay-later, QR, UPI, Wallets, and more. It’s a preferred partner in the affordability ecosystem, offering the maximum coverage of issuers and easy-to-implement integrations across card-based EMIs, pay-later options, and new-age cardless EMIs. PayU offers e-commerce brands with best-in-industry success rates while ensuring a seamless checkout experience.

Fintech Startup Mysa Raises $3.4M Co-led by Blume Ventures and Piper Serica

Indian fintech startup Mysa has raised $3.4M in a Pre-Series A round of funding co-led by Blume Ventures and Piper Serica, with participation from new investors Ikemori Ventures, Raise Financial Services, QED Innovation Labs, and existing investors Antler, IIMA Ventures & Neon Fund. This brings the total funding raised so far to $6.2M.

Mysa gives companies tighter control, built-in auditability, and savings of lakhs each year by eliminating manual inefficiencies, fraud, and tax leakages. Mysa achieves this by simplifying Vendor Management, Accounts Payable, Expense Management, GST ITC checks and Multi-bank payment operations for India’s fast growing mid-size companies.

The company will deploy the new capital to deepen its AI capabilities and its banking product offerings, including AI-enabled procurement, UPI-driven expense management, and a corporate credit card offering. Mysa also plans to unlock embedded financing opportunities by leveraging its growing vendor network, helping businesses access capital more efficiently, while continuing to expand bank partnerships and scale distribution across India’s mid-market segment.

In less than a year of its public launch, Mysa has scaled to processing ₹1,500+ crore in annualized transaction volume, driving payments to over 40,000 bank accounts across the country.

Since launching a year ago, Mysa has rapidly expanded its banking footprint, enabling integrations with 15+ banks—including key players such as Axis Bank, YES Bank, IDFC First Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.

Mysa is currently used across sectors, including omni-channel commerce brands, quick commerce, manufacturing, hospitality, fintechs, and real estate companies with customers such as Dhan, Wint Wealth, Swish, DrinkPrime, Vaaree, Handpickd, Guru & Jana, Accel Data, Atomic Work, DPDZero, Material Depot, and more.

“Finance teams today are expected to move faster while managing more complexity, but the underlying infrastructure hasn’t evolved,” said Arpita Kapoor, co-founder and CEO of Mysa. “We’re building an AI-driven automation platform that plugs seamlessly into legacy ERPs and banks, enabling teams to scale without adding operational risk—at zero upfront cost and with no migration required.”

“We are excited to co-lead this investment. This is a massive, under-served opportunity in India, where mid-size businesses continue to struggle with fragmented and inefficient financial & banking workflows, paying service companies upfront fees to solve for gaps in legacy ERPs. Mysa is creating a new category by combining AI-driven automation with deep bank integrations. Backed by an exceptional founding team, the company is well-positioned to redefine financial infrastructure for India’s backbone economy”, added Ajay Modi, Director Investments at Piper Sercia.

Joseph Sebastian, VP at Blume Ventures, mentioned, “We’re excited to double down on our investment in Mysa. The team has a deep, first-principles understanding of finance teams’ real-world pain points—reflected in strong customer referrals and near-zero churn in the product’s first year cycle. The platform’s multi-banking architecture and AI-first approach make it a natural upgrade layer over legacy systems.

“We welcome Blume and Piper Serica, and are excited to double down on Mysa, where we’ve seen Arpita and Mohit’s clinical execution since Day 1. Mysa’s product suite will be the best AI-enabled operating system for the modern Indian finance teams - solving automation in the right way, from AP to expense management and more”, added Nitin Sharma, Partner at Antler India.

In the next 5 years, over a million mid-sized Indian companies will need intelligent, bank-integrated finance spanning payments, tax, treasury, and embedded financial services. Mysa is uniquely positioned to serve this market and emerge as a category-defining B2B fintech company.

Rapipay Fintech Opens Regional Office in Mumbai, Plans Massive Hiring

Will open 15 regional offices in India in next one year as part of expansion into Neo Banking.

Targets 50% growth in the current Financial Year through all its expansion

RapiPay Fintech Private Ltd, one of the leading fintech companies in India, today announced the opening of its regional office in Mumbai, Maharashtra. This will be the company’s first regional office in Western India, making RapiPay the only player in the assisted payment service category to have offices in all Metros.

Other than Mumbai, the Fintech leader will further expand its footprint with more offices in the west region such as Jaipur, Pune, Nagpur & Ahmedabad soon.

 

The high potential Western zone in the assisted payment services like AEPS (Aadhaar Enabled Payment Systems), Micro ATM and domestic remittance, is expected to increase RapiPay’s market share in the region by another 10 per cent going ahead. Witnessing the growth and the market’s potential, the company plans to increase its employee count by hiring 500 additional employees in the region.

The company is doing 1 million daily transactions and has served more than 120 million customers, witnessing a robust growth of 25% MOM in basic banking services like Cash withdrawal and deposit, AEPS, Micro ATMs, POS, Utility payments, Loans and Insurance.

On the occasion of the office opening in Mumbai, Nipun Jain, CEO, RapiPay Fintech Pvt Ltd, said, “The Western region is an important market for us as it contributes to about 25 percent of our total business. We look at further expanding our footprint in this region and with all our expansions we are expecting an overall growth of 50 per cent in Assisted payments services. Our growth story in the B2B segment is unmatched. With the launch of our neo banking super App NYE, we will be the only player in our category to enter the B2C space. These are exciting times for RapiPay and we are confident of our success.”

RapiPay has witnessed 250% growth in AePS and Micro ATM transactions from Apr 2021 to Mar 2022 and 90% growth for the same period for DMT transactions. The lockdown provided an impetus to the growth of AePS & Micro ATMs as mobility was restricted and RapiPay DBOs fulfilled cash withdrawal requirements of the people. Further, AePS and Micro ATMs facilitated millions of customers for cash withdrawals of the benefits they availed under Jan Dhan Yojana, PM-Kissan Samman Nidhi etc. during the pandemic.

Fintech platform StockEdge, has launched its first TV Commercial SelfisSmart

StockEdge New TVC promotes ‘individuality’, & ‘independence’, powering #AtmanirbharBharat, by inspiring it to self-invest, with ease.

StockEdge, one of India's leading Stock Market analytics and research app launched its first commercial encouraging young Indians to participate in the equity market through self-investment with ease.

With this TVC, StockEdge aims to empower individuals to independently invest and trade doing their own research through StockEdge and become Atmanirbhar.

The TVC features actor Karan Veer Mehra independently and logically making his trading decisions through StockEdge app avoiding market rumours and third person advice. Following the market update, super fast scans and readymade investment strategies offered by StockEdge , Karan becomes his own market expert and trades using StockEdge. The video demonstrates the ease of trading and investing wisely with StockEdges App.The campaign video is available on YouTube in Hindi and will be soon showcased in television and OTT platforms.

Speaking about the launch of the new TVC, Vineet Patawari, CEO & Co-Founder of StockEdge and Elearnmarkets says, “Our latest campaign #SelfisSmart is aimed to ingrain a strong message that when it comes to investing your money, you should trust yourself the most. We want people to become smart enough to manage their own investments. Until you empower yourself with the right data, analytics and research, you cannot make money in markets. This is where StockEdge helps you."

StockEdge was founded in 2016 is India's top and fastest-growing Equity markets and mutual fund research platform, primarily based on NSE and BSE data. It helps the Indian Stock market Traders and Investors make better decisions by providing them with awesome end-of-day analytics and visualizations and alerts. It also helps the young population to learn about various facets of Equity markets and Mutual-Funds through the Learn section and at the same time analyze the market data in the best possible manner. 

StockEdge has got 3 Million app downloads on the play store and app store combined. With more than 33,000+ reviews, it is one of the most highly-rated apps with a 4.4/5 rating. The majority of its users are in the age bracket of 25-34 years. Cofounded by Kolkata based entrepreneurs Vivek Bajaj, Vineet Patawari and Vinay Pagaria.

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.

IIT Madras and RBI Subsidiary Partner to Develop Ecosystem for Early-Stage Fintech Startups

IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) and RBI Innovation Hub (RBIH), a wholly owned subsidiary of Reserve Bank of India, have signed an MoU to promote innovation across the financial sector through the use of technology,

 IITMIC and RBIH will together develop a fintech ecosystem in India that is necessary to support and scale fintech startups. The two will jointly provide incubation support and nurture early-stage  startups in fintech domain.

Slected startups that will be incubated at IITMIC will also be considered for co-incubation by RBIH. This way the selected startups will receive strategic and operational guidance, training and mentoring sessions from RBIH leadership and domain experts, market access, and access to a larger ecosystem of startups, vendors, investors, and other key resources.

Under this partnership, the IITM Incubation Cell and RBIH may also collaborate on projects such as policy whitepapers and research papers.

Last November, a report suggested that Indian FinTech Transactions Market is projected to cross USD 8,384.48 billion by FY2027 at a CAGR of 49.13%, on account of strong support by the government for a cashless economy.  

As per international body Financial Stability Board (FSB),  FinTech is defined as “technology-enabled innovation in financial services that could result in new business models, applications, processes or products with an associated material effect on the provision of financial services”.

London-based Fintech Firm Sokin Enters India with Razorpay Partnership

Sokin, the new generation fintech payment firm, has signalled its intention to become a market leader in India, as it inks a significant deal with Razorpay, the leading full stack financial solutions company to enter the Indian market.

Sokin will work with the RazorpayX, the fintech giant's Neobanking arm, to provide its clients with a fully operational business banking service including current accounts which can be seamlessly integrated with Sokin's simple app, or online-based platform, which allows multiple international transfers with no hidden costs, all for a fixed monthly fee.

Vroon Modgill, CEO at Sokin, knows the link with RazorpayX will offer significant cost savings for Indian nationals and businesses based around the world. He commented: "The remittance and transfer market into India is very important. The deal we have signed, for the first time, will allow anyone to send money home with no additional or recurring hidden costs. We offer users monthly one off subscription fees to enable money transfers from over 150 countries and in more than 35 different currencies, without adding repeat costs or marking-up exchange rates. Through this partnership with Razorpay, the service will now be available for everyone in the Indian market to use."

The Sokin and Razorpay payment gateway will give clients a fast, secure and compliant way to move money back into their home country. It is the first partnership between Razorpay and a European based payments company, which will help millions of people who have family members working overseas.

Shashank Kumar, CTO and Co-founder of Razorpay said, "The Indian payments and money transfer market is undergoing significant change driven by innovation and fintech investment, which is improving the services and products available to customers. The Indian FinTech sector is at its exciting best right now and we are very excited about developing this relationship with Sokin at such a ripe time. With our association with Sokin, we hope to together make real-time, intelligent business banking solutions accessible to the businesses and people living overseas who will be able to save money and time when making remittances."

Sokin allows users to make unlimited payments and transfers for one low monthly fee, starting as low as INR 499. There is no mark-up on transactions and average prices are 20% lower than other existing payment solutions. Fast and secure payments are made through Sokins app covering a range of business and consumer clients.

For more information, please go to www.sokin.net.

About Sokin

Sokin is a next generation financial service provider which enables global payments for both consumers and businesses. Sokin believes in giving consumers the power to make payments and transfer money as many times as they want per month for one fee. Whether it's sending money back home or transfers to friends or even settling with businesses using Sokin is quick and easy.

The current options for transferring money internationally are often complicated and expensive, with often a lack of transparency in the fees being paid. Sokin's transparent fixed monthly cost, with no hidden charges, allows users to make payments in over 200 countries and exchange money in over 150 countries in more than 35 different currencies.

The Sokin app is available to download and customers can sign up to receive service updates.

About Razorpay Software Private Limited

Razorpay, a full-stack financial services company, helps Indian businesses with comprehensive and innovative solutions built over robust technology to address the entire length and breadth of the payment and banking journey for any business. Established in 2014, the company provides technology payment solutions to over 1Mn+ businesses. Founded by alumni of IIT Roorkee, Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur, Razorpay is the second Indian company to be a part of Silicon Valley's largest tech accelerator, Y Combinator. Marquee investors such as Tiger Global, Sequoia India, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, Y Combinator and MasterCard have invested a total of $106.5 Mn through Series A, B and C funding. Around 33 angel investors have invested in Razorpay's mission to simplify payments and banking and redefine how finance works in India.

Fintech startup Karza Technologies chosen among 24 winners at The Maharashtra Startup Week 2020

Winners will be receiving support and mentorship from the Maharashtra government in piloting programmes over a 12 month period

Mumbai based fintech startup, Karza Technologies, has been chosen as one of the 24 winners under the Maharashtra Startup Week 2020, an initiative of the Maharashtra State Innovation Society which is recognizing the best performing startups in the state.

Karza’s efforts at developing fintech solutions through smart utilization of government databases, is helping them deliver state-of-the-art products to clients. Tools like K:SCAN and Litigation BI are digital due diligence platforms, designed to swiftly provide diligence reports to Banks, corporates and government bodies, significantly reducing fraud. Data from more than 750 public sources is collated and analyzed using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to provide accurate information. By analyzing regulatory and litigation filings, holistic reports on millions of businesses can be obtained through these tools, helping financial institutions, government bodies, and others with reliable assessment solutions.

As India progresses towards a more digitally inclusive ecosystem and looks to curb fraud, the need for such services and robust procedures is only going to grow. The impact of Karza’s AI driven end-to-end solutions for performing easy due diligence, risk reduction, and quick procedures is being recognized through this initiative, for addressing contemporary institutional challenges.  

The 7-month long selection process concluded on the 8^th of August, 2020 with the announcement of 24 startup winners. Karza, along with 23 other startups shall receive work orders up to INR 15 lacs from the Maharashtra State Innovation Society to execute pilot programmes within several state departments.

Now in the 3^rd year of its inception, the 2020 edition witnessed the initial shortlisting of the top 100 high-achieving startups, which then competed for the coveted list of the 24 best startups.

Karza Technologies’ win is accompanied by achievements of 23 prominent startups which have excelled in the fields of education & skilling, agri-tech solutions, digital healthcare & health tech, smart infrastructure & mobility, sustainability (water and waste management) etc. They have been chosen for exhibiting superior technology, digital innovation, and impactful solutions to everyday challenges. They shall receive support, mentorship, access to the government and institutional partners, to implement their piloted solutions over a 12 month period.

Speaking on the success at MSW 2020, Omkar Shirhatti, Co-Founder & CEO, Karza Technologiessaid “It is an ideal platform created for entrepreneurs to explore their growth potential, while being assisted and aided by the state’s institutions.  Karza Technologies is very pleased about the achievement and looks forward to working with Maharashtra state in delivering tech-driven solutions which can benefit the people, government, and the financial institutions.”

About Karza Technologies:

Incorporated in 2015 and headquartered in Mumbai, Karza technologies is the brainchild of Gaurav Samdaria, Omkar Shirhatti and Alok Kumar. Karza is a B2B Software-as-a-Service Company, which prides in its comprehensive, state of the art, digital platforms that enable the screening of counterparties through 800+ publicly available government sources, providing seamless, real-time and cost-effective solutions for digital on-boarding (including VideoKYC), diligence, monitoring and fraud prevention.

Its clients consume Karza’s services either through intuitive and informative dashboards, or direct API integration with their core banking systems.

The company’s techno-dexterous solutions, unparalleled safety, and ease of integration and use, make Karza the favored partner for most Banks and NBFCs. Karza uses a research-centric approach to understand problems, discover solutions and design applications to implement them efficiently. Its inventorial retinue of over 180+ micro products provides highly customizable and scalable solutions, allowing Karza to quickly build towards its goal of becoming a one-stop solution for fraud mitigation for the BFSI industry.

Education-focused Fintech Startup GrayQuest Raises $1.2 Mn in Funding led by Foundation Holdings

GrayQuest, an education-focused fintech company, has raised $1.2 million in Pre-Series A funding led by Foundation Holdings, a strategic global investment firm to increase access to affordable education in India.

GrayQuest enables parents to pay their annual education fees in up to 12 monthly instalments – without incurring any extra cost – instead of paying it to their educational institution in two-three bulk instalments. Additionally, parents and students paying through GrayQuest get access to India’s first student focused privilege program and complimentary insurance protection for their lifetime education fees, hence providing them the most convenient, secure and rewarding fee payment experience.

Mahansaria Family Office, Jeejeebhoy Family Office, Ambit Capital founder Ashok Wadhwa’s Family Office, fintech lending company SMECorner founder Samir Bhatia and angel investor Rohit Dhoot amongst others also participated in the round.

Speaking about the partnership, GrayQuest Founder and CEO Rishab Mehta said, “Our first external fundraise is an important step to launch GrayQuest into its next phase of growth. The average Indian household spends nearly 24% of its total annual income on children’s education placing financing of education fees top-of-mind for parents. GrayQuest aims to become the default method of paying education fees for the 100 million plus learners studying in private sector education institutions. At present, GrayQuest is enabling over 250,000 children to access education in an affordable manner while also a becoming strong source of liquidity and fee collection support for it’s partner institutions. Covid-19 has further cemented the need for affordable, accessible and flexible online payment solutions and GrayQuest has seen increased demand from educational institutions across the spectrum. Our Monthly Payment Plan is a ground-breaking product that combines a credit, insurance and a rewards offering for parents paying annual fees to our partner educational institutions. Together with Foundation Holdings global education sector know-how, we will unlock our next phase of development through expanding our reach and depth of offering.”

Aakash Sachdev, Managing Director of Foundation Holdings, added “We are excited to partner with GrayQuest and help them transform into a large education focused fintech organization. GrayQuest’s offering is of increasing relevance today and our partnership is instrumental to implementing a robust financing solution to improve affordability and access for parents’ of the 250 million learners across India. We are impressed with GrayQuest’s traction and its significant impact, even at an early stage, with some of India’s leading educational institutions. With more than USD 100 billion being spent on education by Indian households, we believe there is a massive opportunity for GrayQuest to continue to build tailored financial products that not only solves pain points, but provides a seamless and delightful offering to all stakeholders in India’s education ecosystem. Our investment in GrayQuest also reflects our commitment to building an omni-channel education eco-system to augment the overall learner experience. Last month we invested in Toppr, which is India’s leading after-school AI based learning app for K12 students.”

Abhishek Sharma, Chief Executive Officer at Foundation Holdings said, “India has experienced a tremendous social and economic growth over the past decade. An emerging sector of private schools delivering quality education at affordable prices is thriving to meet the growing demand of over 250 million learners. Our investment in GrayQuest reflects our commitment to building a unique differentiated education eco-system with a focus on quality, affordability and accessibility. Foundation Holdings’ focus is on driving change that matters by moving towards a positive future by finding innovative companies, partnerships and solutions and hence GrayQuest is an ideal partnership opportunity for us. Foundation Holdings is at the heart of creating an education eco-system with over USD 150 million committed via traditional bricks and mortar schools (Ryan EduNation), Education Technology (Toppr) and now ancillary education services via innovative learner-centric credit solutions (GrayQuest) all of which combined are vital to making a social benefit impact in the education sector while ensuring the sustainability of education.”

According to ResearchAndMarkets.com, India holds an important place in the global education industry with around 1.8 million K-12 schools and a learner base of 250 million. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which was recently approved by the Union Cabinet has also proposed a lot of progressive and uplifting changes in the education system.

About GrayQuest

GrayQuest is a Mumbai based education fintech company focused on creating customized credit products for India’s $100B education ecosystem. The company, which was founded by Rishab Mehta in 2017, offers parents the option to convert their annual education fee into convenient, bite sized monthly instalments, without any extra cost. GrayQuest runs India’s first learner and parent focused privilege rewards program with benefits across academic, extra-curricular and entertainment categories. GrayQuest has a strong presence across all the major cities and is currently working with 2000+ educational institutions.

About Foundation Holdings 

Foundation Holdings is a global investment firm focused on building sustainable, industry defining companies in India and GCC’s healthcare and education sectors.  Foundation Holdings' management team has led successful IPOs across the New York Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, Australian Stock Exchange and the Dubai Financial Market, as well as having led two of the largest IPOs in the GCC region.  The firm is the recipient of various awards and distinctions including the Investment Recognition Award by the UAE-India Economic Forum, Responsible Business Award (Nomination) by Ethical Corporation Award, Best Socio Economic Impact Investor Team, UAE, (Nomination) by cfi.co, Best Educational Investment Management Firm (Nomination) by Global Business Outlook, Most Progressive Healthcare Investment Firm, UAE by International Business Magazine etc.

Visa Selects Fintech Firm Payswiff as Winner of Visa Everywhere Initiative 2020 in India

Visa (NYSE: V), the global leader in payments technology, today announced Payswiff as the grand winner of the first Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI) challenge in India. With participation from more than 260 fintechs and 400+ applications, a record number for any VEI program outside the US, the Initiative had challenges focused on digital issuance for driving access to payments and credit, increasing small merchants’ acceptance and digitally transforming B2B payments.

While Payswiff won for its solution of providing end-to-end omni channel electronic payments to banks, SMEs and enterprise merchants, Phi Commerce won the challenge on digital issuance through integrated payments across channels and Samunnati won the challenge on B2B payments for a solution specializing in the Agri-value chain. The challenges were part of the first Indian edition of the Visa Everywhere Initiative – a leading global innovation program for identifying and collaborating with fintechs to produce cutting-edge solutions to digital payment challenges, in addition to enhancing their product propositions and providing payment solutions for Visa’s vast network of partners.

TR Ramachandran, Group Country Manager for India & South Asia, Visa said, “Our hearty congratulations to Payswiff, the grand winner of the first ever Visa Everywhere Initiative in India. We would also like to congratulate Phi Commerce and Samunnati, the winners of the two other challenges. Through VEI, we were on the lookout to collaborate with fintechs that are creating agile, secure and seamless payment experiences, thereby putting completely new and evolved payment experiences into the hands of consumers and businesses. We are happy to have engaged with this vibrant community and look forward to creating unique payment experiences for India.”

He further added, “It is a fact that India is the hotbed of payment innovation and are going to further push the envelope in inventive payments. While VEI is a platform to enable fintechs to enhance and take their innovative solutions to market faster, we are privileged to nurture the companies who are redefining the way India pays.”

After seven months of scouting for the most talented fintechs across the country by hosting roadshows, the pitch day was held in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad for shortlisting fintechs under each of the three challenges. Visa invited nine finalists for a virtual presentation, in light of the current pandemic, to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges which included executives from Visa, their partners and leading fintech organizations.

“The entire VEI journey has been an exciting experience for us at Visa. It has also been a culmination of our last three years of fintech outreach - starting with Visa Developer Platform in 2017, followed by the Visa Ready Program and Fintech FastTrack launches in 2019 – as we continue to open up for business with Indian fintechs and take them to a global stage,” said Arvind Ronta, Head of Products for India & South Asia, Visa.

“We congratulate the winners Payswiff, Phi Commerce and Samunnati and are excited to work with them closely and help commercialize their solutions through Visa’s expertise and capabilities,” added Arvind.

Since its inception in the US in 2015, VEI has expanded into a global platform with more than 6000+ participating startups, that have collectively raised over $2.5+ billion in funding, with more than 215 finalists and nearly 100 winners. The program has been rolled out in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa, touching over 100 countries.

For more information, visit Visa Everywhere Initiative.

UK-based Fintech Wiserfunding Enters India

Z-Score founder launches new credit assessment to improve small business lending in Indian economy

UK based fintech Wiserfunding announced its entry into India, launching its Artificial Intelligence (AI) backed cloud-based credit risk assessment tool targeted for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Wiserfunding arrives at a time when SMEs across India are struggling due to the COVID-19 impact and the available models in the lending sector are not specific to SMEs, are largely non-technology based and have low prediction accuracy. 

The London headquartered fintech aims to invest USD 3 – 5 million over the next three years to tailor credit risk models specifically towards Indian SMEs to reach an accuracy level above 80 percent. The investment will also be towards creating technology to connect to various public and private databases to source all inputs to fully automate its models as they already do in Europe. The company plans to partner with 3 - 4 banks and 8 - 10 NBFCs in India and cover 8.5 million Indian SMEs through its models by end of the financial year.  

The fintech is backed and co-founded by Professor Dr. Edward Altman, one of the pioneers of credit risk analytics since the late 1960s and the inventor of the famous Z-score.

The new SME Z-score by Wiserfunding uses AI to provide accurate, reliable and unbiased credit risk assessment tools to assess the credit quality of SMEs using financial history as well as publicly available structured and unstructured data such as corporate governance, management experience & macroeconomic indicators. The model is unique as it provides geographical and sectoral segmentation to maximize prediction power and is tailored specifically for SMEs.

Dr. Edward Altman, Creator of the famous Altman Z-score methodology for assessing the financial health of companies and Co-founder, Wiserfunding said, “Our mission is to empower SME growth in India and there isn’t a better time than now. Typical to any economic shock, bank lending is expected to reduce for SMEs, making it more difficult for them to survive. It will be important to have a reliable and accurate assessment of businesses’ viability and technology will be central to such analysis. Indian banks and financial institutions will definitely see a significant benefit in using a more independent and unbiased risk assessment platform with the entry of AI powered models.” 

NPAs in the SME sector is a growing concern in India and it has adversely impacted the balance sheet of the banks. Wiserfunding’s solution will help lenders and investors tailor their pricing and increase the efficiency of their lending. This could further increase the availability and quicken the disbursal of funds to SMEs and reduce the high NPA issue faced by the industry.

This is Wiserfunding’s first international office outside Europe with Ms. Avantika Goel, relocating from London to Mumbai, as the Country Head of India. 

Dr. Gabriele Sabato, Co-founder and CEO, Wiserfunding said, “We are delighted to have the opportunity to enter the Indian market in a moment when support to SMEs is so critical. Our models and technology will be a substantial help to lenders and investors to select the most resilient SMEs and provide them with the necessary funding to overcome the current crisis.

We are fortunate to have Ms. Goel supporting us on the ground to build a strong local team. We strongly believe that India will quickly become one of our most important markets.”

Ms. Avantika Goel, Country Head of India said “We’re very excited to launch Wiserfunding in India and committed to set up a successful operation in the country. India is a large market with 42.5 million SMEs and there is an urgent need for an unbiased credit risk assessment service that can provide the business credit score and risk profile of any company within a few seconds using the cloud-based platform. This would help SMEs looking to learn about their own and competitors’ credit profiles as well as banks, NBFCs, insurance companies, funds and investors looking to invest in these SMEs.”

Wiserfunding aims to target bank and non-bank lenders, investors, funds, insurance companies and SMEs. Wiserfunding has been operating globally across 38 countries with clients in the UK, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Latvia, Singapore, Thailand and South Africa. The company’s solution has been adopted by more than 40 bank and non-bank lenders and investors across the world. 

About Wiserfunding

Wiserfunding was founded by Professor Edward Altman and Dr. Gabriele Sabato to assess the credit risk of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Wiserfunding uses past financial history and a range of publicly available structured and unstructured data to assess the credit worthiness of SMEs. This empowers businesses to obtain finance and lenders and insurers to assess the risk of business applicants by providing more accurate data to make better decisions quicker than ever before.

B2B Fintech Firm Signzy Fast Tracks Hiring to Cater to Demand Rise in the wake of COVID-19

Set To add close to 70 new employees to strengthen its Technology team

Leading B2B fintech startup Signzy today said that it will be hiring close to 70 employees over the next six months to cater to the growing demand for its services, in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Signzy, which works with over ninety leading banks and financial institutions in India, is looking to primarily strengthen its technology team with the new hires, besides adding to its marketing and business development functions.

Ankit Ratan, co-founder of Signzy says, “The ongoing pandemic has driven an extraordinary pace of digital transformation for the banking and financial services sector.  In the last four months, the demand for digitalised workflow solutions, including video-KYC, has gone near universal among the BFSI players. Naturally, we have to scale up our team strength in order to meet this demand.”

Signzy offers an AI powered RPA platform for financial services and has added 35 new employees since March to meet the growing demand for its solutions. The company is actively seeking candidates for roles like Backend Engineer, Full Stack Engineer, Product Manager, Frontend Developer, SDET 2, Product Marketing Manager, Engineering Manager and many more.

Some key roles that Signzy is hiring for are: 

Backend Engineer: The candidate will be responsible for producing robust production ready codes and maintenance services. Providing tech and infrastructure for marketing campaigns, creating CRUD APIs for front-end business systems, creating developer friendly service APIs & backend SDKs, and user end products on top of the core technologies are key for this role.

Full Stack Engineer: A candidate who is tech savvy and is passionate about creating solutions using technology. Creating user-end products with top core technologies, the candidate will be responsible to achieve Signzy’s vision and build a responsive and elegant mobile/desktop web UIs. The candidate will also expand and scale the backend infrastructure to global scale. Ability to lead a team, a creative mind to develop and present new features would be necessary traits.

Engineering Manager: Another critical position available is that of Engineering Manager, who will be responsible for mapping business objectives to an optimum engineering structure, including correct estimation of resource allocation. The candidate will work closely with the internal stakeholders to analyse and assess projects. A good leader, spokesperson for the team playing an integral role in key technical, product and hiring decisions.

Product Sales - B2B Sales / Enterprise Sales / SaaS- A competitive and trustworthy candidate to help Signzy build business activities. The candidate is a sales professional responsible for discovering and pursuing new sales prospects, negotiating deals and maintaining customer satisfaction. The candidate must be a go getter who possesses excellent communication skills and feels comfortable reaching out to potential customers to demonstrate Signzy solutions. Ultimately, he/she will help Signzy exceed business expectations and contribute to the company's rapid and sustainable growth. This is a great opportunity for the right candidate to forge a career in India’s fastest growing sector.

Apart from a competitive work environment, Signzy offers its employees a flexible and employee friendly work culture. The startup works with an alluring list of clients, including four of the largest banks in India like SBI, ICICI Bank and more. Globally, Signzy has a strong partnership with MasterCard and offices in New York and Dubai to serve customers in the multiple geographies.

About Signzy

Signzy is an AI powered RPA platform for financial services. No matter how complex your workflow or operational complexity, Signzy is able to completely automate your back-operations decision-making process into a real-time API. This is possible due to a combination of Nebula — Our no code AI model builder and our Fintech API Marketplace of over 200+ APIs. Today we work with over 90+ FIs globally including the 4 largest banks in India and a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US. Globally we have a strong partnership with MasterCard and offices in New York and Dubai to serve our customers in the 2 geographies. Our Product team of 120+ people is building a global AI product out of Bangalore.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

FCC & NPCI to Host World’s Largest Virtual Global Fintech Fest

One-of-a-kind global event convened by NPCI and IAMAI and presented by RBI and Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), to bring together Fintech & BFSI ecosystems

Event supported by World Bank and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) 

• Premier global fintech event to be hosted on 22-23 July 2020
• To host 50+ countries, 100+ speakers and 10,000+ delegates
• Amitabh Kant, Nandan Nilekani, Uday Kotak, V Vaidyanathan, Sachin Bansal and Alderman William Russell among key speakers
• To facilitate discussions on the road ahead and collaborations for businesses in the post-pandemic world

To bring together fintech and BFSI ecosystems across the globe, the Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) the flagship fintech committee of Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) along with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and the Payments Council of India (PCI) will host the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) a first-of-its-kind international virtual fintech event. 

The event is presented by the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance, Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The two day event themed – ‘Fintech: With and Beyond COVID’ is scheduled for 22-23 July 2020. The event is also supported by the World Bank and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).

In times of global uncertainty, India continues to be a bright spot in the world economy. GFF aims to showcase India’s thought leadership across the global ecosystem, while harnessing the BFSI and fintech sector to be the ‘change agent’ for the economy in the post-pandemic world.

Naveen Surya, Chairman, Fintech Convergence Council & Chairman Emeritus, Payments Council of India, said, “The bank and fintech ecosystem has the potential to act as ‘agents of change’ for the economy in the post-COVID-19 world. With more than 2000 fintech startups as we speak, India today stands tall as the world’s second biggest fintech hub which puts a lot of onus on us to drive this growth momentum. GFF is our endeavour to bring all stakeholders together to discuss the challenges and opportunities for the BFSI and fintech sector globally whilst sharing ideas on fuelling sectoral growth through collaboration.”

Dilip Asbe, Managing Director and CEO, NPCI said, “The contribution of fintech start-ups in digitalizing the economy is important and hence NPCI wants to act as a catalyst for bridging the gap between the established financial entities and the start-ups. By encouraging open discussion among start-ups and established entities we hope that it will lead to collaborations benefiting the nation.

GFF will be the largest virtual congregation for the BFSI and Fintech ecosystem. It will be the ‘go to platform’ for companies and entrepreneurs to showcase their innovations and ideas as well as connect with peers, investors and potential customers thus creating growth and networking opportunities for the eco-system.”

Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog, Nandan Nilekani, Co-founder and Non-Executive Chairman of the Board, Infosys, Uday Kotak, Managing Director & CEO, Kotak Mahindra Bank, V Vaidyanathan, MD & CEO, IDFC First Bank and Alderman William Russell, The Rt Hon Lord Mayor, City of London are among the keynote speakers for the fest. 

Justice BN Srikrishna, Retired Judge, Supreme Court of India, Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore, G Padmanabhan, Non-Executive Chairman, Bank of India, Sachin Bansal, Founder, Navi, Stephen Ingledew, Chief Executive, Fintech Scotland, Lizzie Chapman, Co-founder & CEO, Zestmoney, Denise Gee, Managing Director, Finexable, Dilip Asbe, Managing Director & CEO, NPCI, Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI, Arif Khan, CDO, NPCI, Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital, Kunal Shah, Founder & CEO, CRED, T R Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, India & South Asia Visa, Sameer Nigam Founder & CEO, Phonepe, Shivananda - SVP & CTO, Paypal, are some of the distinguished speakers among many others.

The global platform will host discussions by eminent industry stakeholders on -- the next stage of growth for financial institutions, ways for businesses to collaborate and the role fintech will play in the post pandemic world. The fest will drive thought leadership and conversations across sectors and subjects including -- Digital Payments, Digital Lending, Digital Insurance, Data Management, Financial Inclusion, Digital Transformation and Blockchain etc.

With 50+ countries, 100+ speakers and 10000+ delegates in attendance, GFF will bring together representatives of banking, financial technology and investment industries from across the globe to host impactful dialogues, public discussions and a curated exhibition of the latest disruptive technologies.

The fintech fest will stream live on social media platforms of YouTube and Facebook and is likely to be viewed by 100,000+ audience. For more information on GFF, including how to participate in or sponsor the event, please go to https://www.globalfintechfest.com

FCC has been at the forefront, working towards positioning India as a thought leader across the global fintech map. In the recent past, the body had joined hands with the Mumbai Fintech Hub, Government of Maharashtra, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and NPCI to host ‘India Fintech Festival (IFF)’. A first-of-its-kind global platform, IFF eyed for a collaborative growth ecosystem for fintech in India. The event which got stalled on account of the global pandemic is set to resume soon and the dates are expected to be out shortly.

About NPCI – 

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) was incorporated in 2008 as an umbrella organization for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India. NPCI has created a robust payment and settlement infrastructure in the country. It has changed the way payments are made in India through a bouquet of retail payment products such as RuPay card, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), BHIM Aadhaar, National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC Fastag) and Bharat BillPay. NPCI also launched UPI 2.0 to offer a more secure and comprehensive services to consumers and merchants. 

NPCI is focused on bringing innovations in the retail payment systems through use of technology and is relentlessly working to transform India into a digital economy. It is facilitating secure payments solutions with nationwide accessibility at minimal cost in furtherance of India’s aspiration to be a fully digital society.

Fintech Platform BharatPe Opens Its Research Lab 'BharatX'; Launches Internship Program with 1 Lac/Mth Stipend

B2B payments Firm. BharatPe, that is making 'UPI' Payment as universally​ accepted payment method at offline merchants, has launched BharatX -- its research lab, to promote the development and experimenting of radical ideas to solve the next set of merchant and business challenges with innovative product solutions.

With the research lab, BharatPe wants to ensure financial inclusion of over 60 million small and medium merchants in India.

Bharat X will focus on cutting-edge research across the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Data Science, Financial Services, Modeling and several other areas.

Besides this, the fintech firm has also launched an internship program for the students who have graduated in year 2020 from the 14 selected U.S. Universities and have been adversely impacted by the COVID lockdown or work visa related changes introduced by the government of the US.

The internship, which has duration from 3 to 6 months, has stipend of INR 100,000 per month. Stpident will be paid to anyone who is eligible to work in India. Though, currently only Indian citizens can work without any work visa in India.

BharatPe Internship is open in fields including AI/ML, Augmented Reality, Human Computer Interaction, Credit Risk Modeling, Financial Services, Marketing, Strategy etc.

Rural Fintech startup Jai Kisan Raises ₹30 Cr in Funding from Arkam Ventures, NABVENTURES (NABARD), Blume and Global Financial Leaders

Jai Kisan, a Mumbai-based fintech platform for rural emerging markets that facilitates a suite of financial products to rural customers, has closed an INR 30 cr Pre-Series A round of funding led by Arkam Ventures (previously known as Unitary Helion) with participation from NABVENTURES Fund I (backed by NABARD, an apex DFI with AUM of INR 525,000 cr). Jai Kisan is NABVENTURES’ first investment.

The fresh round of fundraising saw participation from existing investors including Blume, Prophetic Ventures and Better Capital. The round also saw participation from prominent leaders in finance and agri like an affiliate of The Chatterjee Group (TCG), Rajiv Sahney (New Vernon Capital), Sanjay Mariwala (Omniactive) and others.

Jai Kisan was founded by Arjun Ahluwalia and Adriel Maniego – graduates of Texas A&M University who quit their jobs in private equity and restructuring, respectively to move to India with a clear mission to change the way finance is delivered to the rural customer.

Over the past 6 months, Jai Kisan has disbursed over INR 50 cr in loans of top tier credit quality to a diverse set of 5500+ borrowers from various income groups across 10 states. Jai Kisan's financial products and robust technology platform is able to onboard a diverse set of borrowers varying from a lady farmer with minimal documentation in a tribal village with no electricity in the Nilgiris to a large grape producer and exporter in Nashik.

“Adriel and I started Jai Kisan to facilitate rightly priced credit (and other financial services) to rural borrowers. It didn’t make sense to us that a poor woman borrower in the middle of nowhere is expected to generate over 24% IRR on a small 50K type loan – (and that too from a formal lender!), while in our previous jobs (private equity) we were expected to generate a meagre 12% IRR for our LPs armed with billions of dollars in capital. We set out on the mission to change the way financial services are delivered to rural customers. Over the past few months, we have built a diverse book while ensuring delivery of credit instantly and more importantly – cheaply, across 10 states including the most backward parts of the country.” said Arjun Ahluwalia, Co-Founder and CEO of Jai Kisan.

Jai Kisan is building the first rural fintech full-stack platform to cater to the financial needs of customers in rural emerging markets. Today, Jai Kisan provides cheap financing options for equipment, input and invoice financing for rural borrowers accessible at their fingertips or at any of Jai Kisan’s partners’ tech enabled locations.

“Very few startups have the commanding view of a large untapped space. Even fewer startups have the luxury of tail winds in these challenging times. Jai Kisan is a rare combination of both of the above along with a unique business model that adds value to multiple participants of the agri supply chain. We are very excited to lead this new round of financing in Jai Kisan”, said Rahul Chandra, Managing Director of lead investors - Arkam Ventures.

Mr. G. R. Chintala, NABARD Chairman, remarked, “We appreciate the efforts of Jai Kisan to emerge as a frontline agri/rural fintech player on the strength of its tech prowess, low cost of operations along with reasonable security levels”.

Rajesh Ranjan, CEO of NABVENTURES, added that, “Jai Kisan is charting a new course in agri/rural digital lending. Even in a COVID scenario, it has delivered stellar growth. NABVENTURES would continue to back such tech-driven agri/rural startups which are at the forefront of agri/rural transformation in India.”

Jai Kisan deploys a B2B2C approach driven by technology, partnering with businesses that sell (inputs, equipments, etc.) or procure (buyers, processors, dairies, poultries, etc.) across the agri, dairy and poultry value chains. Driven by technology end-end and leveraging these deeply rooted networks, Jai Kisan is able to facilitate cheap financing to rural borrowers at unprecedently low interest rates, with a seamless process flow and quick turnaround.

"We are delighted to continue to partner with Arjun and Adriel. Jai Kisan’s robust growth, excellent asset quality and expanding national food print have made them a highly differentiated and scaleable fintech partner for all rural stakeholders. The company's unique offering will continue to propel the growth engine of rural India. We are confident that Jai Kisan will become a large exchange and platform of choice for all things rural related." Sajid Fazalbhoy, Venture Advisor at Blume said.

Today, less than 50% of households dependent on agriculture have access to credit with even lesser having access to rightly priced credit. Rural borrowers often find it difficult to access financial services from banks and other traditional sources due to the lack of documentation, credit/transaction history, visibility of cashflow and operations.

Jai Kisan is also working closely with banking partners to expand the offering of financial products to the bottom of the pyramid to further enhance their livelihoods (more credit products, savings, etc.) while also securing (insurance, etc.) the livelihood of the rural customer.

Jai Kisan is partnered with 3 blue chip banks and 5 NBFCs, including being a key Fintech partner for Avanti Finance India Pvt. Ltd. (An NBFC promoted by Mr. Ratan Tata, Mr. Nandan Nilekani and Dr. Vijay Kelkar) to drive Financial Inclusion in India.

“Jai Kisan is helping Avanti in its mission of delivering affordable credit to the Agri and MSME sectors in India through their extensive reach as well as innovative credit assessment process. We look forward to continue to deliver sustainable impact through this partnership.” said Sunil Tadepalli - Chief of Partnerships, Avanti.

ICICI Securities to Fund Fintech Startups Selected by NSRCEL of IIM-Bengaluru

NSRCEL, the startup hub at the Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru (IIMB), on Monday announced a list of 25 shortlisted fintech startups for a 15-month extensive programme.

The programme could see many of them receiving funding from the CSR fund of ICICI Securities, a leading financial services firm.

The selected ventures would undergo a three-month pre-incubation journey during which they would be engaged in sessions, workshops, peer-to-peer learning activities while getting regular one-on-one mentoring and advisory sessions, a joint statement from NSRCEL and ICICI Securities said.

Networking events, connects with industry experts, mock-pitches and interaction with investors would be the highlights of the programme, the statement said.

After this, the ventures would be given an opportunity to pitch for incubation and funding and the selected ventures would be taken forward for a further 12-month incubation journey, it said.

The initiative was launched in association with ICICI Securities as part of its CSR activity in April 2020, and got over 240 applications from across the country, the statement said.

COO of NSRCEL Rajiv Sawhney and its chairperson Venky Panchapagesan evaluated the applicants and interviewed over 60 entrepreneurs before handpicking the finalists.

The ventures selected are early-stage startups working in areas like trading, lending, payments, wealth advisory, insurance tech, accounting and financial management, billing software and auxiliary sector-logistics. The cohort covers the participants from Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Raipur, Noida, Udaipur and Hyderabad, the statement added.

Fintech Startups to Spot Raise pre Series A up to $1 Mn at India FinTech Festival 2020

India FinTech Festival (IFF) 2020, India’s first homegrown global platform to drive Fintech innovation in the country has opened applications for its marquee show ‘FInD the next Unicorn’, giving a chance to Indian consumer fintech startups to spot raise pre Series A up to $1M. 

IFF 2020 is being presented by Mumbai Fintech Hub (Government of Maharashtra), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) on March 4 and 5 at MMRDA grounds, Bandra Kurla Complex. The event is supported by Department of Financial Services, NITI Aayog, Invest India, Digital India, World Bank and UNCDF (United Nations Capital Development Fund). Medici is the program partner for the IFF 2020.

 

Similar in concept to the popular American TV series Shark Tank, ‘FInD the next Unicorn’ is a fast-paced, business reality event to showcase India's top ten early-stage FinTech startups looking to raise funding from a panel of five marquee investors.

 

The eligibility criteria for the application includes: 

• Must be an India-based start-up


• Should be looking for less than or equal to $1M


• Must have a consumer-facing product


• No ideation stage, must have a product


• Must have some positive revenue generation

 

A five member jury is to shortlist 20 applicants for a closed door semifinal, slated to be held in mid-February in Mumbai. Of the 20 startups, 10 will be selected to present their idea at the finale to be held at the India Fintech Festival on March 5. 

 

“India has been home to 25 Unicorns and we believe that the zest from the fintech startup ecosystem will help us discover more start-ups that can take the number to 100 by 2025. FInD the next Unicorn is borne out of this zeal to discover such ideas and people and take them to the next level. In addition to the spot funding commitment, FInD the Next Unicorn will also give a massive exposure to these startups by bringing them to the centre stage of the fintech ecosystem and help them get noticed by more investors who are willing to support them,” said Suniti Nanda, Fintech Officer, Mumbai Fintech Hub, Government of Maharashtra.

 

During the finale each of the 10 shortlisted startups will get 10 minutes to present their ideas to an audience of 1,500 people and spot pitch to a marquee investor panel of 5 members including the likes of Mr. Amrish Rau, India CEO of PayU and Mr. Sanjay Mehta, Founder and Partner of 100x.vc.  An on-the-spot funding commitment of up to $1M will be made by the panel in the startup whose idea is found to be the most convincing. 

More information is available on the FInD the next Unicorn webpage. 

With 100+ speakers, 5000+ attendees, 25+ participating countries, India FinTech Festival 2020 is the biggest homegrown fintech event in the country. The event serves as a representation of the best of the innovations of over 2000+ Indian startups working to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2024, due to the critical aspect financial services play in the progress of an economy. 

About India FinTech Festival (IFF 2020): 

India FinTech Festival is the biggest fintech confluence in India and a global convention for fintech players to be hosted on March 4-5 in Mumbai. In its inaugural year, IFF 2020 will host 100+ speakers, 25 participating countries and 5,000 attendees who form a part of the global fintech ecosystem including policy makers, regulators, technocrats, fintech startups, private equity investors, venture capitalists, consulting firms and academia. The best-in-class exhibits of 100+ products and platforms will be presented at the festival, while 15+ track sessions on subjects including Neobanking, Digital Payments, Digital Banking, Digital Lending, Insurtech, AI & Data, Commerce & Fintech, Wealthtech & CapitalTech, Spotlight Asia among others will be held during the two day event. IFF 2020 highlights includes FInD the next Unicorn, India Fintech Awards, CXO Dinner and API Accelerator.  

The festival is presented by Mumbai Fintech Hub (Government of Maharashtra), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) and supported by Department of Financial Services, NITI Aayog, Invest India, Digital India, World Bank and UNCDF (United Nations Capital Development Fund). Medici is the program partner for IFF 2020.

For more information visit www.fintechfest.in

Fintech Startup Sqrrl is on ‘Mission 200’ for the Betterment ofUnderprivileged Children

 

Sqrrl, a savings and investment startup, has partnered with GiveIndia, India’s largest online donation platform, to help 200 underprivileged children get access to education and mid-day meals across 19 states in India. Named ‘Mission 200’, this campaign allows Sqrrl users to contribute to the welfare of these children, simply by transacting on the app. Each time you use the Sqrrl app, the Sqrrl team will sponsor the education and mid-day meals of 1 child. 

The Founder of Sqrrl, Samant Sikka, says “As we turn the year and look forward to the new year with hopes and aspirations, we thought it best to use this opportunity and share our abundance with people who need them. We invite you to join this Mission 200 and take a small step to spread Big Smiles”.



The team at Sqrrl also says that sharing and caring is in the fabric of the app itself. It is India’s 1st personal finance app where users can invest their money directly into tax-saver donation funds, powered by GiveIndia. 

Co-founded by Samant Sikka, Sanjeev Sharma, and Dhananjay Singh, the Sqrrl app was launched in the year 2017 and has more than 3,50,000 users across India. The app is available in 9 local languages – Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada and Malayalam. It has a unique feature, Sqrrl Away, to round up a user’s spends to the nearest Rs. 100 or Rs. 500. This feature is designed to especially make saving money easier for the youngsters. 


About Sqrrl

Launched in March 2017, Sqrrl is an investment and wealth management platform aimed at helping young Indians develop the habit of savings and investments. 

This app has taken on the challenge of making savings truly micro by automating and simplifying the process of investing in mutual funds. The users can do goal-based investments in mutual funds. Users can save for specific purposes such as tax savings.  The intelligent algorithms allow uses to create an investment portfolio customised for their risk appetite. Users can also start SIPs or make lumpsum investments. 

At present, the Sqrrl app has more than 350,000 downloads across Android and iOS platforms. Over 76% of Sqrrl users are under the age of 35, and 51% of its user base are beyond the top 30 cities.

India FinTech Awards (IFTA) 2019 - Valocity Global from New Zealand bags Fintech Startup of the Year and others Winners

Valocity Global from New Zealand bagged the prestigious Fintech Startup of the Year trophy at India FinTech Awards (IFTA) presented by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and organised by India FinTech Forum.

The event's agenda consisted of innovative startup demos, panel discussions, fireside chats and keynote speakers. 23 fintech startups from the US, New Zealand, Hungary, Israel, Singapore and India that were shortlisted from 400+ applications presented presented their product innovations in front of a distinguished Panel of Judges. Valocity Global from New Zealand won the prestigious Fintech Startup of the Year trophy. As part of the award, Valocity Global will get an opportunity to be a part of Paris Fintech Forum, the most exclusive European event on digital finance.

Mumbai Fintech Hub, an initiative of the Government of Maharashtra was the Chief Strategic Partner. The Keynote Address was given by Ms. Suniti Nanda, Fintech Officer, Mumbai Fintech Hub and she spoke about Initiatives of Mumbai Fintech Hub. There was discussion on UPI roadmap, SME Digitization and Disruption Caused By Lending Fintechs In India By NPCI, Perfios and TransUnion CIBIL respectively. Two fintech reports were launched by The Digital Fifth on Middle East and Indian markets.

Sougata Basu, Founder, CashRich said that, “We were glad to be a part of IFTA 2019. The event was really engaging with discussions on payment, lending, wealth management, Open Banking, AI and Blockchain. It was a great experience to connect with fintech leaders from 20+ countries.”

Mr. Rajeev Ahuja, Executive Director, RBL Bank and a member of the IFTA Panel of Judges said, “I was mighty impressed with the depth and the quality of young companies presenting at IFTA 2019. Fintech is now better understood and there's always a risk that such events become a rehash of what worked yesterday. In that respect I would say that IFTA 2019 was very refreshing and it will make me want to come back for IFTA 2020."

Harshil Mathur, CEO and Founder, Razorpay and winner of FinTech Leader of the Year 2019 at IFTA 2019 said, "Our technology and our team is what we trust in the most. This recognition by IFTA is a sign that our efforts in revolutionising the financial ecosystem are in the right direction. I would like to thank IFTA for a well-organised forum - it was a great evening and extend my congratulations to all the winners and participants".

Carmen Vicelich, CEO & Founder of Valocity Global, said “Valocity Global had an incredible experience at the IFTA Awards.  Attending as a Fintech Finalist presented a great opportunity to demonstrate the Valocity platform to leading key lenders and participants in the banking ecosystem and the highlight was undoubtedly winning Fintech Start Up of the Year! Valocity Global was very impressed with the IFTA Forum by the breadth and depth of attendees and especially the wide range of innovative attendees coming from all over the globe. What a great opportunity to collaborate and network – we will definitely be back!”

Winners at IFTA 2019

IFTA Fintech Rising Stars: The following three startups won the Fintech Rising Star trophies:

• CreditOn


• Neener Analytics 


• Vested Finance

Category Award Winners at IFTA 2019:

• Best International Startup in India: AngelList India, India


• Best Global Fintech Hub: F10 Fintech Incubator and Accelerator, Switzerland


• Most Innovative Bank of the Year: Kotak Mahindra Bank, India


• Financial Inclusion Initiative of the Year: Stellapps, India


• Most Innovative Payment Startup: Razorpay, India


• Most Innovative Lending Startup: Paisabazaar.com, India


• Best AI Startup: CreditVidya, India


• Best Use of Blockchain in Financial Services: MyEarth.ID, India


• RegTech Startup of the Year: Nexus Asia, India


• Best Innovation in Wealth Management: smallcase Technologies, India 


• Best Technology Company for Fintech Solutions: Synapse, USA


• Proptech Startup of the Year: NoBroker.com, India


• Most Innovative Fintech Product: Razorpay, India


• Woman Leader in Fintech: Mabel Chako, Co-founder and COO at Open Financial Technologies


• Fintech Leader of the Year: Harshil Mathur, CEO and Founder at Razorpay


• Fintech Rising Star: Neener Analytics, USA


• Fintech Rising Star: CreditOn, India


• Fintech Rising Star: Vested Finance, USA


• Fintech Scaleup of the Year: Indy, India


• Fintech Startup of the Year: Valocity Global, New Zealand

Mabel Chacko, Co-founder and COO at Open Financial Technologies won Woman Leader at IFTA 2019 said, “I am honoured to win the Woman Leader in Fintech award at IFTA 2019. A lot of great conversations happened during India FinTech Awards that brought together different perspectives on all the latest developments in fintech.”

The India FinTech Forum is a non-profit initiative that offers a platform for fintech companies to collaborate and voice their opinions on the relevant policy issues. More than 450 fintech companies and over 5000 individuals who are members of this forum, are dedicated to enhancing the ecosystem to ensure that India leads the global fintech innovation wave. Indian fintech firms have unique opportunities with the India Stack (Aadhar, UPI, etc.), which are not available anywhere else in the world.  IFTA organizes meet-ups in several locations and seeks to drive policies that accelerate the growth of fintech in India

Website Link: https://indiafintech.com