In an attempt to nurture the country’s naive FinTech ecosystem, a Centre of Excellence (CoE) named FinBlue is launched in Chennai, with the support of Software Technology Parks in India (STPI) and the Tamil Nadu government.
The CoE has been launched with an objective to mentor and provide technical support and funding to FinTech startups. The first-ever CoE, out of the planned twenty-eight by STPI, plans to incubate more than 58 startups in the next five years.
Taking its first step, the CoE launch in Chennai has begun a Startup Pitch Fest for recognising eligible and innovative startups for the ‘FinBlue’ programme.
FinBlue, being a first of its kind incubation facility, aims at strengthening India as a leader in the FinTech industry by providing technical support, mentorship, and much more. This will also help startups to gain access to a sound FinTech ecosystem that consists of banks, financial institutions, investors, and a marketing strategy platform.
Director general of STPI and chairman of the governing council of FinBlue, Omkar Rai, says, “This a part of STPI’s nationwide initiative to transform India into a nation of software products, capitalising on the strong IT services industry by providing an ecosystem in all the emerging technologies. This is being done in collaboration with stakeholders such as industry leaders, industry associations, academia, venture capitalist and government bodies.”
In addition to this, he acknowledged the support of the Tamil Nadu government, who provided 50% funding to the FinBlue. With the government’s support, FinBlue CoE has become the first and fastest CoE among all 28 CoEs being established by the STPI nationwide.
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Banking and financial services domain is one of the emerging technologies in FinTech and is chosen as one of the priority domains for setting up a CoE at STPI Chennai. In order to maintain professionalism in the work of all CoEs, industry leaders and veterans have been requested to become chief mentors to FinTech startups and also head the decision-making body of the CoEs.
Santhosh Babu, principal IT secretary to Tamil Nadu government, said, “This is yet another significant initiative of the Tamil Nadu government to further strengthen the reputation of being a leader in tech space.”
He also added that this initiative has the support of credible partners, particularly TiE Chennai, which enjoys greater association with entrepreneurs across levels. The Tamil Nadu government will surely make use of advanced technological development for sustained growth as well as promoting the industry across the state.
The origin of the CoE has the potential to build and intrude the FinTech segment by helping in the growth of the startup community further.
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