ICICI bank will be investing ₹100 crore in the latest tech startups. They have already invested in six firms and the amount invested so far is ₹40 crore. The investment made so far has been in Artificial intelligence, digital KYC, and lending areas. ICICI is expected to fulfill its ₹100 crore investment by the end of this year.
ICICI bank was founded in 1994 and is currently the second largest private bank in the country. It has its headquarters in Mumbai, and it is one of the fastest growing banks in the country.
When asked about the technologies that are of interest to the bank, Madhivanan Balakrishnan, Chief Technology and Digital Officer of ICICI bank said, “Artificial intelligence (AI) is an interesting area they are actively looking at, and the second sphere is taking Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to even more complex decision making, where both data quality and rules, as well as process, are equally ambiguous.”
ICICI bank discovers new startups by conducting “Demo Day” programme and the main focus for investment are the AI, digital KYC, and lending technologies. The bank has also partnered with some accelerators to help in the discovery of more startups in the fintech domain. So far, the bank has about 14-15 partner companies.
Some of the firms ICICI bank has invested in are, Fingpay, which enables biometric payment system based on aadhaar. Another firm is Arteria Technologies, which offers SAP based supply chain solutions.
Along with partnerships, ICICI bank has set up its innovation centre in Mumbai, that will help the startups in a more comprehensive manner. This initiative is lead by Rohan Angrish, Head, ICICI Labs. This will help in fostering new relationships and help in reducing the costs involved overall using data.
There are many other institutions that have been involved in funding and investing in startups all over the country. IIM-Ahmedabad’s centre for innovation, incubation, and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), announced, “Bharat Inclusion Initiative” that has raised $25 million to invest in startups during the early stages.