ICICI Securities assists 25 startups on pre-incubation trip

Bengaluru: NSRCEL, the startup hub at the Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru (IIMB), on Monday announced a list of 25 shortlisted fintech startups for a 15 -month extensive programme.

The programme could see many of them receiving funding from the CSR fund of ICICI Securities, a leading financial services firm.

The selected ventures would undergo a three-month pre- incubation journey during which they would be engaged in sessions, workshops, peer-to-peer learning activities while getting regular one-on-one mentoring and advisory sessions, a joint statement from NSRCEL and ICICI Securities said.

Networking events, connects with industry experts, mock-pitches and interaction with investors would be the highlights of the programme, the statement said.

After this, the ventures would be given an opportunity to pitch for incubation and funding and the selected ventures would be taken forward for a further 12-month incubation journey, it said.

The initiative was launched in association with ICICI Securities as part of its CSR activity in April 2020, and got over 240 applications from across the country, the statement said.

COO of NSRCEL Rajiv Sawhney and its chairperson Venky Panchapagesan evaluated the applicants and interviewed over 60 entrepreneurs before handpicking the finalists.

The ventures selected are early-stage startups working in areas like trading, lending, payments, wealth advisory, insurance tech, accounting and financial management, billing software and auxiliary sector-logistics.

The cohort covers the participants from Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Raipur, Noida, Udaipur and Hyderabad, the statement added. P