After Supporting 30+ Startups, CIIE.CO's Bharat Inclusion Initiative is back with the 4th edition of FI Lab

For a long period now - more than a decade, IIM Ahmedabad's CIIE.CO has been working on incubation, acceleration, and seed-funding initiatives for early-stage entrepreneurs. The Financial Inclusion Lab (FI Lab), under the aegis of the Bharat Inclusion Initiative (BII), is a platform to accelerate startups building solutions for the underserved segment of Bharat by operating in the domains of Fintech, Skilling, and Livelihood.

Livelihoods have been disrupted, access to capital choked, and savings have been eroded amid the pandemic. Simultaneously, newer digital infrastructure is taking hold, and innovative products and engagement models are being developed. Keeping these struggles and disruptions in mind, the one-of-its-kind Bharat Inclusion Initiative is back with its 4th edition of FI Lab, to support startups aiming to create an impact through scalable, innovative solutions to support India's low-and-middle-income (LMI) segments.

What The 4th Edition has to Offer

Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, J. P. Morgan, Metlife Foundation, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and the Omidyar Network, FI Lab offers diverse solutions and customized support to each selected startup including catalytic capital of up to INR 25 lakhs for Product Development and Market Validation. The other key offerings include:

• Field Studies (Led by financial inclusion experts for consumer & market insights)
• Portfolio Support (Up to a year of providing market, channel, and investor connects) 
• Mentoring (Through clinics with LMI focused practitioners and domain experts) 
• Visibility (Through platforms and networks) 
• Service Partners (For cloud, marketing, and other support worth over INR 50 lakhs)

All these solutions will help test the startup's key assumptions, ascertain problem-solution fit, and develop its product for a successful pilot, and scale-up. The need to reimagine such solutions drives the Financial Inclusion Lab - this time with a special focus on building for resilience and relevance in the post-COVID world.

Priyanka Chopra, COO, CIIE.CO, says, "COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted the lower and middle-income communities in the country. Inclusive fintechs will play a key role in helping these communities respond and recover by providing innovative solutions that meet their liquidity needs, access better livelihood opportunities, save for the future and manage risks better. With the 4th edition of the Lab, we seek to deploy our considerable experience, expertise and networks to identify and support these solutions in their journeys to scale-up."


COVID-19 has significantly impacted lower-income communities, including segments such as micro-businesses, informal workers, farmers, and women. In collaboration with MSC Consulting (an international digital financial inclusion firm), FI Lab aims to accelerate select early-stage startups that are focused on developing tech-enabled solutions which can be used for the benefit of such underserved communities.

What kind of Startups are being sought

The program will be supporting technology solutions that help in improving the financial health and capabilities of underserved communities, with potential to impact at scale. Desirable solutions include innovative flow-based credit models, underwriting methods that leverage social behaviours, models leveraging SHGs, and other social capital aggregators to enhance womens access and usage of financial services, LMI-focused Insurtechs, and skilling and livelihood solutions that leverage fintech for unique value addition.

Through the FI Lab Accelerator, Bharat Inclusion Champions Program, and Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund, BII has already supported 34 startups. Startups supported by the initiative have cumulatively raised follow-on funding of $34.2 million from marquee investors and have served 14.5 million individuals and 13,500 MSMEs since joining the program.


The Bharat Inclusion Initiative invites applicants to be a part of Financial Inclusion Lab's fourth cohort - up to 10 startups will be selected for this 20-week long acceleration program.

To know more please visit here

About CIIE.CO

CIIE.CO is The Innovation Continuum. This continuum spreads across incubation, acceleration, seed and growth funding, and research. Founded at IIM Ahmedabad in 2002, as an academic centre, CIIE.CO has grown and pivoted to include acceleration, incubation, investment, research and publication. Overall, we have aimed at filling the multiple, ever-evolving gaps in the Indian innovation-driven entrepreneurship space in many ways. Among various initiatives, CIIE.CO has conceptualised and hosted India's first accelerator, created India's first and so far the only cleantech-focused fund, accelerated over 1000 entrepreneurs, invested in over 163 startups, inspired over 700000 with our publication - Stay Hungry Stay Foolish.

All the initiatives on the innovation continuum are aimed at supporting the fearless, innovation-driven entrepreneurs. Working with like-minded partners like corporates, government agencies, investors and academia, helps us push harder towards co-creating exponential change.

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