Pune Fintech Meetup chapter launched
The Pune Fintech Meetup chapter, conceptualised by fintech accelerator ‘The Fintech Meetup’ and tech start-up incubator ‘Idea’s to Impact’, was launched recently. Abhishant Pant, Founder of The Fintech Meetup said, “A few years before, Pune had only 30 fintech start-ups, but that number has now increased to 90+. The ecosystem has grown. Within a few months we will have a fintech unicorn from Pune and that will significantly alter the perception.”
“Access to capital drives growth, not just the access to financial institutions access. We want to put in place an incubation value chain through which we can identify and guide start-ups. We are planning similar programs every two months to catalyse the ecosystem,” Abhishant added.
Gireendra Kasmalkar, Managing Partner at Pentathlon Ventures, said, “Pune can be the fintech capital of ‘Bharat’. Fintech founders need to understand and to be in proximity of the problems to reduce their capital requirement. We want to start a cohort program at Ideas to Impact Hub where early-stage entrepreneurs can grow.”
CA Milind Kale, Chairman, The Cosmos Co-operative Bank Ltd said, “Fintechs and co-operative banks can work together to strengthen the co-operative banking segments. We can save time and customisation cost of the products if fintechs understand the real problems of banks like us.”
IIT Madras Incubation Cell and RBI Innovation Hub join hands
Deep-tech start-up hub spearheaded by IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) and RBI Innovation Hub (RBIH), a wholly owned subsidiary of Reserve Bank of India, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together in developing the ecosystem necessary to support and scale fintech start-ups in India.
Select start-ups incubated at IITM Incubation Cell will be considered from time to time by RBIH for co-incubation and thereby receive strategic and operational guidance, training and mentoring sessions by RBIH leadership and domain experts, market access and connect to a larger ecosystem of start-ups, vendors, investors, and other key resources.
Rajesh Bansal, CEO of RBI Innovation Hub (RBIH) said, “Through such incubation partnership we intend to build a robust environment conducive to growth of fintech start-ups in the nation.”
Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, President, IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) and IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP), said, “To solve the challenge of economic disparity, we need to work towards financial inclusion in ensuring inclusive economic development for all. This collaboration with RBIH is a positive step forward in this direction.”
NSDC, LetsEndorse partner to create nano entrepreneurs
National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and LetsEndorse have partnered to create a mass and rapid micro and nano-entrepreneurship movement across India through a tech-and-touch model developed by the latter. The collaboration will impact the lives of rural and urban individuals looking to set up new enterprises or scale-up their existing ventures in more than 165 segments, across manufacturing, services, trading and new-age digital entrepreneurship.
Ved Mani Tiwari, Chief Operating Officer, National Skill Development Corporation said, “It is our constant endeavour to skill manpower from across the country and enable sustainable livelihoods. Entrepreneurship is one of the crucial pillars in that journey. NSDC’s collaboration with LetsEndorse will create an impactful framework and democratize micro-entrepreneurship till the last mile.”
Monika Shukla, Co-founder and CEO, LetsEndorse Development said, “We are looking at enabling over a million micro/nano entrepreneurs by 2027 and ten million entrepreneurs by 2030. UDITI, our horizontal platform solution for driving and delivering the Udyamita model has been developed over the last two years and we are looking at integrating it with DESH-Stack as well.”
KTM conducts adventure trail in Pune
Premium motorcycle brand KTM recently conducted the ‘KTM Adventure Trails’ in Pune, aimed at introducing the owners to adventure biking by taking them on single-day rides exploring exciting trails.
The adventure trails are curated in a way that within the vicinity of their cities, riders discover hidden paths that they have never seen before. The adventure trail in Pune began from KTM Wakdewadi to Lavasa. The ride was accompanied by KTM Expert Rider Varad More along with Sangram Devekar.
Sumeet Narang, president (probiking) at Bajaj Auto Ltd. said, “We had launched KTM Adventure Tours which are long-distance adventure rides to seven iconic destinations and KTM Adventure Day which is a single day closed circuit training program, earlier this month. The adventure trails are a potent addition to this set, giving owners a more hands-on experience of their adventure motorcycle.”
Since its entry into India in 2012, KTM has grown its presence to over 365 cities and 460 stores. KTM has built a strong customer base of over 3.1 lakh biking enthusiasts over the period.
