PayU, India’s leading online payments solution provider has collaborated with Amazon Web Services India Private Limited (AWS India), the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, and Chiratae Ventures, the largest domestic venture capital firm, to launch inFINity, a FinTech accelerator for early-stage Indian startups. inFINity accelerator is a 45 day program that brings together and supports the growth of early-stage FinTech startups by providing access to mentorship from leading industry experts, curated resources, and AWS Activate credits.
Selected FinTech startups will be announced on 17th August 2023 as the first cohort of inFINity to receive training and mentorship sessions. The startups will have access to PayU’s bespoke payment solutions to help them meet their industry demands. They will also have access to experts from PayU, guiding them to scale their business operations and expand their customer base. They will get to build a strong technical foundation with expert guidance from AWS, and up to USD $25,000 in AWS Activate credits to access over 200 fully featured services on AWS. The cohort will also receive actionable guidance on fundraising from Chiratae Ventures, and a select few startups might be presented to the Chiratae Investment Committee as well. In addition to mentorship from domain specialists, they will also have lifetime access to the resources of the inFINity community.
inFINity 2023 mentors include Anirban Mukherjee, CEO of PayU payments, Kailash Nadh, CTO of Zerodha, Nitin Gupta, Founder & CEO of Uni Cards, Prabhu Rangarajan, Co-Founder of M2P, among others.
Anirban Mukherjee, CEO of PayU India said, “PayU has a long-standing tradition of fostering innovation by supporting disruptive, early-stage start-ups. A key element of our long-term growth strategy is to develop a fintech ecosystem that will meet the diverse financial needs of Indians. Through this accelerator, we are creating a space where fintech entrepreneurs can flourish, fueling a technologically driven revolution in financial services”
Amitabh Nagpal, Head of Startup Ecosystem, AWS India said, “According to industry estimates, Asia-Pacific is set to become the world’s leading fintech market by 2030. Enabled by AWS, fintech startups in India have been at the forefront of digital financial innovations, such as mobile wallets, online investments, and robo-advisors, among others. At AWS, we offer the broadest and deepest set of innovation tools, including machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, to help fintechs transform their ideas into tangible solutions to drive financial inclusion and optimise customer experiences. inFINity accelerator is designed to enable early-stage fintech startups to build a strong technology foundation, accelerate their journey, and propel their growth.”
Mandeep Julka, Vice President at Chiratae Ventures said, “Chiratae has been a pioneer in FinTech investing, with investees such as PolicyBazaar, Fibe, Vayana Network, etc. We invest with a thesis-led approach and actively work with our startups as they solve some of the deepest financial services problems with technology, and are looking forward to discover new partners at inFINity 2023.”
Kailash Nadh, Chief Technology Officer, Zerodha, and mentor for InFINity program said, “A first-principles approach has far higher odds of getting organisations, engineering, products, and infrastructure as less wrong as possible compared to other approaches. My hope is that this program imbibes these principles well in fledgling startups.”
Startups that are eligible to apply must be either bootstrapped, or have raised funding of less than USD $5 million, seek to raise Seed to Series A funding, and must have a minimum viable product (MVP) already developed. The program will commence on August 31st with a three days in-person boot camp in Bengaluru, followed by four weeks of intensive online training. A virtual showcase will be conducted to conclude the program on November 15th, 2023 to enable the cohort access to fundraising opportunities with leading investors.