RBIH, IIMA Ventures Launch Third Cohort Of Women-Focused Fintech Programme

The Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) in partnership  with IIMA Ventures have jointly launched the third cohort of women-focused fintech programme in India.

SwanariTM TechSprint 3.0 provides a platform for fintech innovators to conceptualize, develop, and scale solutions that address the unique financial needs of women.

“By fostering innovation and empowering fintech startups, we aim to amplify impactful solutions that not only enhance women’s financial inclusion but also drive their economic empowerment.” said Aakarsh Naidu, head of fintech and startups at Reserve Bank Innovation Hub.

In collaboration with IIMA Ventures, RBIH aims to strengthen fintech startups to create solutions that will help women’s financial inclusion in India. It aims to impact 556 Mn women under the programme.

The past winners of the programme include startups like Kaleidofin, Merakal, Vitto, Anniyam Payment, MaksPay and Manipal Business Solution among others.

In recent times the fintech space has seen a host of developments.

For instance, in December, digital payment aggregator PayU in partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched the second cohort of their fintech-focused accelerator programme, inFINity 2.0, for early stage Indian startups.

In the same month Startup nurturing platform India Accelerator launched its Cohort’25 for tech startups and plans to invest $ 8-10 Mn in the flagship programme.

Earlier in September, Multi-stage venture capital firm Accel, which counts Moneyview, Flipkart, Swiggy and Moglix among its unicorns portfolio, had announced the fourth cohort of its flagship pre-seed investment programme Atoms. 

As per Inc42’s Annual Funding Report, 2024, funding raised by homegrown fintech ventures plunged 19% to $2.5 Bn in 2024 compared to $3.1 Bn in the year-ago period.