Axis Bank's accelerator program boosting innovative fintech, AI startups

BANGALORE, INDIA: Axis Bank has announced the completion of the first cohort of its startup Accelerator Program at its innovation lab,'Thought Factory', in Bangalore. The bank might explore some of the novel solutions around Payments, Investments and Credit which are developed by the startups graduated.

The facility was set up in June last year to accelerate the development of innovative technology solutions for the banking sector. The team has collaborated with OCBC Bank and Visa Innovation Lab, Singapore and AWS, India for co-innovating.

Here are the 6 startups of the first cohort, who were selected from a pool of 108 applicants:

S2Pay - S2Pay forms a layer over payments app, and enables the end consumer to make secure payments from their mobile app, even when the consumer is offline - making digital payments a realty for everyone.

Pally - Pally has created a chatbot that on the input of an image of salary slip creates an investment portfolio which maximizes tax saving for the end customer.

Perpule - Perpule's app let end customers scan the shopped products from their mobile app, and pay from within the app once the list is complete, making shopping fun and convenient. Perpule also raised a seed funding of $650K from Kalaari Capital.

FintechLabs - Fintech labs' analytical models can be used in digital lending space. With their analytics they aim to digitize lending completely, making it quick, easy but safe and focused.

Paymatrix - Paymatrix is trying to solve the problem of credit involved in Indian rental market via enabling payments to land lords via credit cards and also help landlords in rent/property management.

Gieom - Gieom has a bouquet of products that help large organizations manage their operations, compliance and assist change management.

Rajiv Anand, Executive Director, Axis Bank said, “We are proud to be the springboard for breakthrough ideas that can disrupt the banking landscape. The Bank, along with the Thought Factory team, has been working with other upcoming startups too.”

Apart from the Accelerator, Thought Factory also runs its in-house incubator where it is building a chatbot with Active AI (a Singapore based start-up specializing in AI stack), to provide speedy redressal of customer queries via chat.

Another interesting solution is AI based smart video-surveillance, with Uncanny Vision. If successful, the solution has the potential of removing any manual intervention in surveillance.

Worxogo is another interesting startup that uses Persuasive Technology for aligning work behaviours with work processes. With the Bank, they are building an Innovation Management Platform to mobilize its innovation efforts at an organization-wide level.

Axis Bank is also conducting a startup boot camp, a 2-month program for grad startup ideas, as a part of its “Future of Jobs” initiative. Five student teams of 2-members each will be provided a hands-on mentorship program for pursuing their ideas and converting them into real businesses.