Mumbai: State Bank of India has set
up a start-up fund to finance startups in the financial
technology (fintech) space.
Speaking on the issue, SBI Chairman
Arundhati Bhattacharya said, “This fund shall consider assistance of up to Rs 3
crore to an Indian registered company for promoting their business innovations
using IT in India for banking and related technology.” The ‘IT Innovation
Start-up Fund’ will have corpus of Rs 200 crore, she said.
Bhattacharya said the bank has also
formed a mentoring team to assist startups. It will support, monitor and make a
report on the progress and the utilization of the funds by the venture. The
team will facilitate and guide business, extending help in various areas
including additional funding requirement, she said, adding that it will also
give external legal and financial assistance as and when required. The team may
have one or more external technical experts.
Bhattacharya said the bank has opened
a startup branch called InCube in Bengaluru in January. It functions as a
single point of contact for the startup account holders for their various
banking and financial advisory related requirements. “This branch is not giving
actual funding. It handholds startups to create their business plans, finds out
their legal requirements, help them with compliance and registration,” she
said. It has signed up 200 clients so far.
With the emergence of technology,
banks are facing two challenges of managing their technology legacy stack and
bringing the cost down for small transactions.
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