Fintech Valley Vizag Launches FinTech Accelerator

Andhra Pradesh government’s FinTech Valley Vizag, a sustainable global fintech ecosystem, has partnered with KPMG to develop a high potential fintech ecosystem in Vizag. With this partnership, the FinTech Valley Vizag has also announced the launch of the BFSI Use Case Repository Program and Fintech Accelerator Programme. They have also announced a Blockchain Business Conference to be held in October 2017.

Talking about the program, Lokesh Nara – IT Minister, Panchayati Raj and Rural Development in the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet said, “Under the visionary leadership of the esteemed CM Shri Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Andhra Pradesh is on a fast track to go digital and provide the impetus for Fintech community.  With a potential of 50 Mn fintech users in the state, the government is enabling market access through PSUs, Banks and Financial Institutions and promoting self-help platforms with fintech solutions.

Set up in 2016, the Fintech Valley Vizag aims to bring together industry, academia, and investors to innovate and build the fintech ecosystem. It is a self-sustainable, global fintech ecosystem. It focuses on converging finance and technology, to create large avenues of growth through industry-enablers, world-class infrastructure, entrepreneurship and innovation.

In order to establish Andhra Pradesh as a global hub for fintech innovation, Fintech Valley Vizag has outlined a series of initiatives such as formulating use case repository, setting up accelerator programmes, etc.

BFSI Use Case Repository Programme

The government is focussing on co-creating innovative solutions to address the evolving needs of the financial services landscape. The ‘BFSI Use Case Repository’ is in collaboration with market leading banks, insurance companies, NBFCs, and capital markets companies. They have collated more than 100 use cases around the problem areas in the industry.

To operationalise the same, Andhra Pradesh Electronics & IT Agency (APEITA) is launching Hackathon and Innovation Challenge for the fintech community. The startups will present their ideas and solutions around the identified use cases.

The innovation challenge is live as ‘Fintech Valley Blockchain Challenge Series’ around three use cases in areas of – Supply chain finance, Business processes and International remittances. The challenge is aimed at seeking innovative solutions and execute proof of concepts with the promising ones.

Click here to register and know more about the Use Case Repository Program

Fintech Accelerator Programme

The Fintech Valley Vizag aims to act as a catalyst in the growth of startups by connecting them to the leading fintech ecosystem players. For the same, it has launched the Fintech Valley Accelerator Programmer. It is a three-month intensive programme and will support selected startups by providing business opportunities through POCs, market access from partner financial institutions, access to technology resources, mentoring on fund raising, legal guidance. Apart from this, it will provide a financial incentive of $6250 (INR 4 Lakhs) to speed up the process of scaling their businesses.

Commenting on the initiatives launched by the Fintech Valley Vizag, J A Chowdary, Special Chief Secretary & IT Advisor to the Chief Minister Government of Andhra Pradesh said, “The use case repository will document top problem areas for corporates across the BFSI sector, the accelerator programme aims to promote self-sustainable fintech startups that can create and tap large avenues of growth in the market globally by supporting the participants with world-class infrastructure, entrepreneurship incentives and innovation platforms.”

The Fintech Accelerator Program will give an impetus to the startups in the state, to pursue the opportunities in the fintech sector within the state. While the BFSI Use Case Repository Programme will look to co-create solutions to address the fintech needs in the state.