Barclays Launches Fintech Innovation Platform “Rise” In Mumbai In Partnership With 91springboard

Barclays has launched Rise Mumbai, its fintech innovation platform for fintech startups in India in partnership with 91springboard. The Mumbai space is the latest addition to its network of physical spaces designed to bring together the world’s best and brightest startups and is sixth Rise site globally, following the London, Manchester, New York, Cape Town and Tel Aviv hubs. The announcement had been made in March this year.

Rise Mumbai will provide a physical site for innovative fintech companies, offering a co-working environment, world-class event spaces and meeting rooms. The Mumbai site, located in Peninsula Business Park at Lower Parel.

Jaideep Khanna, CEO & Country Head, Barclays India said, “The start-up ecosystem is witnessing a steep increase in activity and interest from investors with even large corporates looking to invest in this space. Rise provides us with the opportunity to leverage our client relationships and experience to play a relevant role in the growth of the fintech community in India.”

The launch event also saw the finalists of Risehack- a fintech hackathon, present their project to a group of senior Barclays stakeholders, renowned industry experts and the global Rise community. Risehack is a fintech Hackathon, focused on disrupting the finance domain using cutting–edge technologies.

The Hackathon has spanned three phases; phase one was held online from 28 April to 17 May and focused on team building, idea submission and coding contests. A total of 212 entries from over 600 participants were chosen. In the second phase, which began on 18 May, participants worked on executing the submitted idea with mentorship from Barclays, Pitch coaching by Rise Global experts and code reviews by the Acehacker team.

Lubaina Manji, Barclays Head of Rise and Group Innovation Office said, “At Barclays we are embracing the opportunities and expertise of the startup ecosystem, working together to drive innovation in financial services. Rise Mumbai will give technology entrepreneurs in India access to a global network of experts, businesses and partners, setting them up for rapid scale and growth. We are very excited about the launch and look forward to tapping into India’s budding fintech ecosystem, widening our global reach.”

Also, Zone Startups, the accelerator brand of Toronto-based Ryerson Futures Inc., has been announced as the program partner by Barclays, for managing the RISE accelerator program. This is the 5th accelerator program being set up by Ryerson Futures under the Zone Startups branding. Recruitment process for the RISE Accelerator will commence in early July, with the first cohort starting in early September. The program is expected to be 4-months long, and will conclude with a grand demo day in January 2017.

With this launch, Barclays joins banks like HDFC, Yes Bank, ICICI, and SBI who are increasingly partnering with fintech startups. In March, HDFC  selected five startups out of 30 to deploy their products in the bank, after they are further evaluated on technical, business, security, and compliance parameters.