Tailor-made Agri Infinity programme for startups with an aim to co-create scalable digital financial innovations in the Indian food and agriculture domain
Mentoring and support for food and agritech startups working on digital financial solutions
Focus on collaborative testing and scaling of solutions
Mumbai, NFAPost: YES BANK announced the launch of an annual startup enabler programme, YES BANK Agri Infinity, which seeks to co-develop digital financial solutions for the food and agriculture ecosystem by mentoring entrepreneurial ventures in the field.
As part of the agri-fintech enabler programme, early as well as growth-stage startups interested in exploring tech-enabled financial innovations in the agri space are invited to apply with their proposals. Those meeting the eligibility criteria will receive the guidance and support necessary to develop their solutions and apply them across the agricultural value chain.
Through the initiative, a select cohort of startups will not only receive mentoring by veteran bankers for experiential co-development, but also get access to YES BANK’s digital banking infrastructure and network, collaborative opportunities to pilot new solutions and fundraising advisory.
Commenting on the launch, YES BANK Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer Prashant Kumar said fintech innovations in agribusiness are central to advancing sustainable growth of the Indian agri-food industry.
“By facilitating the exchange of knowledge and development of tech-enabled financial solutions for scalable agribusiness models, our programme aims to open a door for entrepreneurs to a thriving innovation ecosystem,” said YES BANK Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer Prashant Kumar.
He also said the learning and collaborative opportunity built into the programme will work towards helping the participants build and test their solutions in the market, with subsequent support on scaling the solutions.
Open to applications now, the enabler programme calls for an expression of interest from agritech startups that are working on financial innovations, pivoting into agri-fintech, or looking at prototyping and rolling out fintech solutions across the food and agriculture value chain.
The programme will last up to six months, based on the maturity and readiness of the solution. It will culminate in a demo day that will explore the potential for partnered engagements for scale-up.
Startup profile and support they will receive:
Who should apply?
• Agri-fintech startups working on financial innovations across the food and agriculture value chain: could include origination, farmer on-boarding, farmer KYC, credit scoring, risk assessment, monitoring and mitigation, disbursement & recovery solutions and cash management systems among others
• Food and agritech start-ups
• pivoting into agri-fintech and exploring the opportunity of adding a financing layer to their core proposition
• looking at prototyping and rolling out modern digital cash management and transaction banking solutions across the food & agriculture value chain
What startups receive:
• Access to YES BANK’s digital banking infrastructure and robust customer network
• Mentoring by senior banking professionals on credit scoring models, risk assessment and risk mitigation
• Opportunity to work with bankers to design and prototype innovative digital financial solutions
• Project partnership – Opportunity to partner for piloting new innovative solutions
• Analysis of startup’s current digital financial solutions
• Equity infusion in select startups with matching value propositions
