Press Coverage : Barclays’ Rise Accelerator announces first cohort with 10 FinTech startups

The Rise Accelerator set up by Barclays and managed by Zone Startups India recently announced its first cohort, comprising ten FinTech startups. Read this article from TOI to know more..

The 10 shortlisted startups include four startups from Bangalore (Customer XPS, Fund Expert, CrediWatch, MegDap), two each from Mumbai (RockMetric and Arrow AI) and Delhi (Capital Quant Solutions and Neuron), and one each from Chennai (FixNix) and Hyderabad (Anlytiqed).

Rise Accelerator will provide the selected startups with access to Barclaystechnology, insight and expertise, as well as offer dedicated access to onsite mentors and advisors, and enable access to international markets through the Barclays and Zone Startups networks.

In addition to Rise Accelerator in Mumbai, Barclays operates its accelerator programs in six more countries, and Zone Startups is a leading accelerator across India and Canada, working with multinationals like GE, Rogers, Deloitte and Thomson Reuters. Ajay Ramasubramaniam, director, Zone Startups, said, “Post the launch, the Rise Accelerator team and Barclays conducted roadshows across six cities in India, and several international webinars, to attract entries. After three months of program marketing, we received 236 applications, including several international entries.”

A final shortlist of 10 most promising FinTech startups from across India have been selected for the 18-week program, during which the cohort will get to engage closely with the internal stakeholders at Barclays and do a focused POC during the duration of the cohort.

Applications included startups across core financial technologies like lending, digital banking solutions, trading, enterprise mobility, cyber security, data analytics, payments, cryptocurrency, insurance and wealth management.

Himanshu Warudkar, director – head of client facing technology, investment banking technology India, and program director – Rise Mumbai, said: “Rise accelerator is an important part of the overall open innovation proposition for Barclays. Launch of the debut cohort in Rise Mumbai gives selected startups and Barclays colleagues the opportunity to work with each other on identifying innovative solutions to real problem statements. Rise Mumbai in partnership with Zone Startups is looking forward to welcome and engage with these startups over the next few months and make them a part of our community.”