Seven Startups Graduate From Second Cohort of YES FINTECH

One of India’s largest private banks, YES Bank, has announced the graduation of seven startups from the Autumn cohort of its Global Fintech Accelerator, YES FINTECH.

As part of the 15-week innovation programme, eight startups, chosen from over 600 applicants across more than 10 countries, undergo rapid enhancement of their value quotient through product-market-fit guidance, proof-of-concept (PoC) validation and go-to-market advisory.

Talking about collaborating with startups for mutual benefits, Amit Shah, country head, corporate strategy, marketing and communications, YES Bank, told Inc42, “One of the essential parts of working with startups is that an organisation should be culturally open to working with fintech on an equal footing. Another important thing is technology infrastructure. For us, the mentality of entrepreneurship and collaboration exists in the organisation.”

Within the domain of fintech, the key focus areas for YES FINTECH’s Autumn Cohort were Alternative Lending, Digital Payments, Real-time Data Analytics, Process Automation, Smart Decisioning, Wealthtech, and Invest Tech.

Of these eight startups, one had a technical issue, so seven startups made it to the Demo Day and graduated from the YES FINTECH cohort.

As per the official statement, startups participating in the second cohort will be provided with funding of up to $1 Mn via VC partners without any equity commitment to YES FINTECH. Additionally, these startups have been offered mentorship from global sectoral experts.

In addition to more than 100 YES BANK APIs, the fintech startups will be given access to YES BANK’s expansive network of over 2 Mn retail and 10,000 corporate clients as well as exclusive international exchange programmes wherein the startups can visit foreign markets.

The aim was to help these startups understand the global fintech landscape and avenues for market entry by leveraging YES FINTECH’s over 20 global partnerships that were forged last year.

Commenting on the development, Rana Kapoor, MD and CEO, YES Bank, said, “We are pleased with the outcomes of our second cohort, which has addressed multiple focus areas with material impact on productivity, data intelligence, new MSME business generation, and enhanced customer service, among others. Since launching the accelerator programme, we have seeded and scaled several such technologies which have had a multiplier effect on the entire fintech ecosystem.”

The Demo Day, where each of the seven startups had the opportunity to showcase their co-created solutions, witnessed participation of nearly 15-20 angels/VCs across verticals such as finance, technology, capital markets, entertainment and media etc, along with more than 20 largescale companies involved in financial services.

Five of the seven startups have successfully completed PoCs and are moving to commercialisation while three are in the process of raising funds on the back of successful PoCs.

Meet The 7 Startup Graduates Of YES FINTECH Autumn Cohort

• Sentimer: Sentimer is a Spanish fintech startup that offers AI and voice-based automated customer support and transactions for MSMEs with the goal of improving customer experience via simpler, intuitive and homogeneous support service. The solution has the potential to be scaled by integration with smart speakers/personal assistants developed by internet giants.
• bNESIS: Based in Warsaw, Poland, bNESIS is a fintech startup focused on building a unified API service for enabling credit scoring and SME profiling via leading ecommerce portals for loan disbursement basis GST returns and transaction data.
• Pingal: Founded in 2017, Mumbai-based Pingal Technologies uses data science and natural language search to provide data-driven decision making and real-time reporting on business KPIs.
• Karza: Headquartered in Mumbai, Karza assists in leveraging GST returns to underwrite loans from SMEs and corporates along with alternative credit scoring. The solution is being used by YES BANK to further deepen further the YES GST solution and to develop risk containment solutions for faster risk profiling besides mitigating NPAs and loan frauds.
• Balance Technology: Based in Bengaluru, Balance is a personal savings app that allows users to save petty change and invest in  FDs and mutual funds. Balance enables financial education and product adoption through adaptable goals.
• Fyle: Specialising in intelligent employee reimbursement and expense automisation, Fyle is a Bengaluru-based startup that was founded in 2016. The platform inks email, consumer apps, and other platforms to simplify and automate recording, sharing and processing of expenses and invoices to a one-click process within an organization.
• FinBit: Delhi-headquartered FinBit, which was launched in 2016, offers loan decisioning through automated analysis of bank statements to enable underwriters to understand a customer’s financial behaviour.

Ongoing Innovation Programmes For Indian Startups

With a view to foster a similar ecosystem and accelerator programme for budding Indian entrepreneurs, US-based incubator Techstars recently opened applications for hardware and software-focused startups to participate in the Techstars Bengaluru Accelerator and gain financial, human and intellectual support.

Similarly, the global aerospace and security giant Lockheed Martin has opened applications for its annual India Innovation Growth Programme (IIGP). Further, ecommerce giant Amazon is also inviting applications for its annual Amazon Alexa Accelerator 2018, which aims to seek out 13 promising startups specialising in voice technology.

As the Indian startups witness increasing interest across sectors with the government also promoting Startup India, accelerator programmes like YES FINTECH support the innovation and growth in the right direction.