Yes Bank Invests In Venture Catalysts Group Funds To Cater To Future Tech Businesses

Yes Bank has invested in Venture Catalysts Group Funds, an integrated incubator. However, the amount of the investment has not been disclosed. 

The fund has invested in two platforms, Beams Fintech Fund and 9 Unicorns Accelerator Fund.

Launched at the beginning of 2022, Beams Fintech Fund (Beams) has been investing in growth stage startups in the fintech space including in the embedded finance, SaaS for banks & FIs, SaaS for businesses, global enterprise SaaS, personal finance management and neo banking space. 

9 Unicorns Accelerator Fund has been launched by the founding members of Venture Catalysts.  It has already raised $100 Mn and is actively deploying from its maiden fund. 

Venture Catalysts Group Funds offers funding, mentorship, and networking to startup founders from the idea inception stage to the growth stages of the startup journey.

With these investments, the bank aims to cater to the ‘Future Tech Businesses of India’, bolster innovation in the technology space including financial sector, it said in a statement.

“We believe that this partnership is a step in the direction of becoming the go-to-bank for technology startups. India is at the cusp of a massive growth and the collaboration between banks and tech companies – especially with fintechs – will play a critical role in this journey,” said Ajay Rajan, country head, transaction banking, Yes Bank.

According to an official statement, the partnership aligns with Yes Bank’s long-term growth strategy of strengthening its foothold in India’s growing tech markets by investing in the founders of tomorrow. 

For the lender, collaborating with and supporting tech companies to ideate and experiment on various use cases such as agriculture, healthcare, commerce, education, logistics, open banking, supply chain finance, payments, digital banking, among others has been a key driver of  its innovation strategy, the statement added.

“We hope this partnership will encourage other banks and fintechs in the market to partner with groups like Beams Fintech Fund and 9 Unicorns Accelerator Fund. We are aiming to create a large ecosystem consisting of banks, NBFCs and fintech companies to support the tech ecosystem,” Naveen Surya, co-founding member of Beams Fintech Fund, said.