Mumbai: In a major boost to startups, State Bank of India has announced a Rs 200-crore dedicated IT Innovation Startup Fund. It will provide a maximum assistance for Rs 3 crore to companies registered in India and promoting their business innovations using IT in the banking and related technology space. Announcing this at the CII’s banking tech summit in Mumbai on Thursday, SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya spoke of startups as important for the eco-system and said that they also had InCube, a single window banking relationship support for startups through their dedicated branch in Bengaluru.
They already have over 200 clients in the last six months and celebrate one client each month. She stressed the need for a suitable regulatory framework for risks like cyber frauds. She said with the growing interaction with financial technology companies there were lots of associated risks like source of funds, open source technology risks, data theft, costs of remaining in business due to constant need for innovation and security measures etc. She said there is need to learn from ‘new kids on the block’ and how she was flummoxed by a young entrepreneur who told her “why don’t you imagine the unimaginable.”
