New York-based global financial service provider JP Morgan Chase in partnership with IIM-A‘s Centre for Innovation, Incubation, and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) collaborate to set up a ₹65.2 crores ($9.5 million) Financial Inclusion Lab, to serve the underserved communities in India.
The aim of the initiative is to identify and bring to scale the early-stage fintech startups focused on helping the people in the lower and middle-income segments.
“Our initiative aims to identify and nurture fintech start-ups to generate innovative ideas which will help make financial products and services more accessible to this critical mass of Indians,” said Kalpana Morparia, CEO, South and South East Asia, J.P. Morgan.
The above initiative is a part of the IIMA-CIIE’s Bharat Inclusion Initiative (BII), a program launched in May that aims to incubate and support startups focused on technologies that can be used to benefit the underserved community in areas like livelihood, financial inclusion, health, and education.
The Lab will be hosting a series of accelerator programs to identify solutions for specific financial challenges, and some of the best ideas will be selected and provided with start-up capital, market access, technical assistance, mentoring, and sector-based expertise.
To support the initiative, JP Morgan will be providing ₹48 crores ($7 million) over the next four years, making it the largest philanthropic commitment by the organisation outside of the US.
The Lab can also leverage the insights and learnings from the work performed by JP Morgan Chase funded-Financial Solutions Lab, a five-year-long program launched in the US in 2014 by the Center for Financial Services Innovation. This initiative has helped in developing and scaling fintech solutions aimed at the wellbeing of the underserved communities in the US. The fintechs under this program have touched the lives of over 2.5 million Americans.
Along with JP Morgan, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Bill and Melinda Gates will also be supporting the Lab as part of their overall commitment to BII. The Lab can also draw upon there experience in working with the Indian communities.