Yes Bank looks beyond fintech startups with a multi sector accelerator program

Chennai: After tasting success with its fintech accelerator, Yes Bank is now set to launch multi sector accelerator program.

YES SCALE will offer a 15 week program for startups in the areas of smart city, clean tech, Agritech, Lifesciences tech and education tech.

The bank will invest close to Rs 4.5 crore towards this program which includes the grants for pilots.

“The success of 2 cohorts of YES Fintech have demonstrated our strengths in partnering with fintechs to co-create industry changing banking solutions. Now, with YES SCALE, we will replicate this model across our focus sectors to build deep interventions jointly with our corporate clients. This is fully in line with the Bank’s vision since inception — which was to cater to the sunrise sectors of India's economy using knowledge banking to deliver impactful ecosystem solutions,” said Rana Kapoor, founder & CEO, Yes Bank. The bank will partner with global accelerator partners and corporates to run the accelerator like ITC, Amul, MTR Foods, Artha Venture Partners and Omnivore Partners.

“YES SCALE: AGRITECH - will help us align digital technology solutions to address key business challenges in our business model and also scale up the startup ecosystem,” said Sanjay Sharma, CEO, MTR Foods.

The bank is in discussion with anchor partners across identified sectors. “Our partners will create use cases and help understand what part of their business can be improvised using tech. They will also dedicate leaders to handhold and be mentors besides creating a sandbox environment for testing. Many are willing to coinvest as well,” said Amit Shah, head, strategy and fintech, Yes Bank. Shah adds that while several companies are open to and keen on working with startups, not all have the wherewithal to run a full fledged program. “We are happy to allocate financial and managerial resources to create such a platform. We believe tech can impact these sectors with immediate effect and have strong social impact,” said Shah.

Rs 2.5-3 crore has been carved out of the bank’s CSR funds which will be allocated towards funding for proof of concepts. The bank will not take an equity stake in lieu of the grants.

As per the bank’s research report IFOR 2018 over 80% tech startups in India do not receive funding for pilots and this is a major deterrent for innovation. YES SCALE will provide a pilot grant of upto Rs 20 lakh.

Startups will also get access to over $1 million support through cloud credits, cloud telephony, SaaS invoice discounting etc.

While Agritech has been soft-launched last Friday, other sectors will be rolled out in the next 3-4 weeks. The program will combine physical and virtual presence to work with startups.