IIM-A's Financial Inclusion Lab picks 11 startups in 1st batch; will provide capital, market access and mentorship

Mumbai: The Financial Inclusion Lab has selected 11 fintech innovators for its first intake to the Lab which has a corpus of $9.5 million. The Lab is promoted by the IIM-Ahmedabad’s Bharat Inclusion Initiative (BII) along with JP Morgan, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and works towards helping scale up early-stage fintech startups that address the unique needs of the lower-and middle-income people. The successful entrants will use technology-based strategies such as automation, underwriting and machine learning to help improve the financial health of the target population, who include the poor and farmers and small entrepreneurs, the Lab said in a statement Wednesday. “The $9.5 million initiative will provide the start-ups with the necessary support, capital, strategic guidance, market access and mentorship to build and test their products in 12 months,” the statement added. [caption id=“attachment_3049362” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image Thinkstock.[/caption] The Lab builds on insights from international financial inclusion consulting firm MicroSave, which has found that over 40 percent of Indians have not accessed financial services enabled by technology. To support the first entrants, the Lab will draw insights and learnings from the work performed by the JP Morgan Chase-funded Financial Solutions Lab, managed by the IIM-A’s Centre for Financial Services Innovation. Sanjay Jain, chief innovation officer at the Center for Financial Services Innovation, said, “Technology-based innovations offer tremendous opportunities to create solutions that enhance financial resilience of underserved communities.” Over the past five years of operations, the Center for Financial Services Innovation has supported 34 fintech companies to improve their financial well-being of underserved communities in the US. Kalpana Morparia, chief executive South and Southeast Asia at JP Morgan, said, “Fintech presents a unique opportunity to promote the financial health of the country’s underserved who struggle to adopt digital platforms for financial needs.”