The IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP) is nurturing, hand holding and churning out some of the most innovative startups in the Fintech space with an aim to strengthen financial inclusion in the country. The park currently associates with over 12 firms in this space like Kaleidofin, Dvara Holdings, CredAvenue, Northern Arc Capital Limited and Samunnati among others. While a few of them have been incubated at the research park itself some of them have been incubated through partner incubators.
“While some have a micro-finance focus, most are focused on products that look at innovative ways to serve the low-income segment whether they are individuals, farmers, women and more. Each of the startups who are a part of our ecosystem has diverse financial services with a mission to ensure that every individual and enterprise has complete access to financial services,” said Prof. Jhunjhunwala, the President of IITMRP.
Each of these startups are working in different segments but their ultimate goal is to ensure that everyone, especially those in the rural pockets, have access to financial services and products. For instance, Kaleidofin, this startup offers simple, well-designed advice based financial solutions to address the needs of 600-800 million under banked customers. According to its founders, Sucharita Mukherjee and Puneet Gupta, even though 80% of Indians today have a bank account, nearly 38% of the total accounts continue to be inactive. Physical access to bank branches and lack of understanding of products continue to be two primary reasons for low-usage of formal financial products.
