Directorate

* Through this collaboration, STPI's financial technology incubator FinBlue and IIT Madras’ incubation cell would jointly incubate fintech start-ups at different stages.
* Workshops, hackathons, training, and events would be conducted to draw entrepreneurial interest to further strengthen the fintech start-up ecosystem.

The incubation cells at Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) have come together to develop an ecosystem to identify and support financial technology start-ups in the country.

STPI’s AIC STPI NEXT manages the FinBlue Financial Technology Centre of Excellence in Chennai.

Through this collaboration, STPI's financial technology incubator FinBlue and IIT Madras’ incubation cell would jointly incubate start-ups at different stages, developing solutions in financial technology, a press release said.

Workshops, hackathons, training, and events would be conducted to draw entrepreneurial interest to further strengthen the fintech start-up eco system.

"STPI has very domain-specific centres for entrepreneurship, fintech is one of them which is focused on all kinds of financial technologies. We'd like to work together through FinBlue to find the brightest ideas in the fintech arena,” STPI director general Arvind Kumar said.

The collaboration marks another key development in IIT Madras research park vision of ‘Fintech for Inclusion’, a communique from the institute said.

"Majority of the population in the country still do not have access to traditional financial services. Fintech start-ups can intervene in boosting financial inclusion by leveraging the existing financial eco system and emerging technologies," said Ashok Jhunjhunwala, a professor at the IIT-Madras research park.

The start-ups would receive mentorship from industry experts, training, access to a large network of banking and financial institutions, among others.

Public sector Indian Overseas Bank on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and STPINEXT (a Section 8 company of STPI) for leveraging innovation through the financial technologies engaged under the FinBlue initiative.

The MoU was signed in the presence of IOB Managing Director and CEO Partha Pratim Sengupta and STPI Director General Arvind Kumar, the Chennai-headquartered bank said in a statement.

"This MoU will help the bank in leveraging innovation through the financial technologies engaged under the FinBlue initiative," the statement said.

The FinBlue initiative by STPI is an integrated programme to start-ups to scale through its incubation facility. It provides access to the financial technology ecosystem that consists of bankers, financial institutions, mentors, investors among others.