Blockchain Startups Make Final 12 for Indian Yes Bank’s First Fintech Accelerator
Yes Bank, a major private bank in India will launch its inaugural accelerator program for Fintech startups today with 12 chosen candidates from an international screening process.
Yes Bank’s business accelerator program for fintech startups, aptly named ‘Yes Fintech’ will commence today with 12 Fintech startups in an intensive 15-week program, the bank announced .
The 12 startups figured among a total of 753 applications received from 18 countries around the world who underwent a two-month application and screening process. 35 startups made the cut and took part in a live, in-person demo with Yes Fintech’s management team. A final list of 12 startups were chosen for the near four month-long accelerator program.
Blockchain, Payments and AI Gain Focus
A majority of the final 12 startups are based in India alongside others such as Singapore’s SoCash and Israel-based startup Paykey. SoCash, a solution that enables users to withdraw cash from small businesses or “cashpoints”, beyond the limitations of an ATM network, has notably received support from Singapore’s central bank.
Altogether, the final 12 startups specialize in a number of Fintech domains including payments, alternative lending platforms, insta-credit, cybersecurity, risk intelligence, blockchain technology, chat bots, robo advisory and AI & machine learning, among others.
Two chosen Indian startups Signzy and R I mo, are companies leveraging blockchain technology. Signzy is the developer of a biometric digital KYC solution powered by blockchain smart-contracts. R I mo is behind a blockchain-based foreign exchange B2B marketplace providing faster and cheaper cross-border payments while connecting with existing banking systems.
Yes Bank has notably partnered technology giant toward developing a blockchain to digitize and automate vendor financing solutions in India. Using technology from the Linux Foundation-led open-source blockchain project Hyperledger, the proof-of-concept proved successful. The solution enabled faster and efficient record keeping with financing near real-time compared to the traditional paper-intensive manual process that could takes four days.
Benefits
The 15-week program will see startup receive mentorship from industry experts toward scaling and deploying their products. Further, their solutions could see integration with Yes Bank’s banking ecosystem through APIs. More notably, the chosen startups gain access to Yes Bank’s entire customer base of 2 million (+) retail customers, over 10,000 small and medium sized enterprises and over 5000 corporate customers.
Yes Bank managing director and chief executive, Rana Kapoor, stated:
We are really excited about the inaugural cohort and believe that the 15-week program will provide an ideal springboard for these 12 startups to graduate from innovative products to scalable businesses with access to YES BANK’s digital banking infrastructure as well as our robust customer network.
The 12 startups also stand to gain access to funding up to $1 million through VC partners associated with the program, without any commitment to upfront equity for capital.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
