BENGALURU: Nov 4, 2015, DHNS
Citibank has declared the list of 20 selected startups and organised a Demo Day as part of its Bengaluru leg of the Asia-Pacific Citi Mobile Challenge (CMC) 2015.
Citi India country business manager Kartik Kaushik said CMC 2015 is a virtual accelerator with a robust curriculum and mentorship programme aimed at inspiring developers to re-imagine trends in digital banking.
“The finalists will get an opportunity to showcase their ideas and stimulate digital progress in the industry. We are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm shown by companies involved in CMC,” Kaushik said.
Kaushik added that CMC in India received 1,300 applications from across 110 cities and shortlisted 230 of them, out of which the 20 were selected.
“Participants represented a wide range of segments, including the start-up community, large and mid-sized corporates, as well as students,” he said.
Bengaluru tops list
Bengaluru tops the list with seven companies, followed by Mumbai with five. The startups range from those working in wearables, financial inclusion, corporate finance, proximity payment, customer engagement, underwriting, to those in B2B connect, and IoT spaces.
Besides partnering with IBM, Google, Amazon, Microsoft Ventures, PwC, Wipro and Nasscom’s 10,000 startups programme, the initiative helps open up Citibank APIs to the startups to build solutions on top of them.
Shrishti ESDM, a Bengaluru based startup founded by B N Pal, conceptualised Aapna-Seva which avails AEPS (Aadhaar-enabled payment system), biometric PoS (Micro-ATM), and Automated Cash Dispensers (AEPS-ATM) to bring about a revolution to cover banking needs of 1.25 billion Indians.
“During his last visit to the Valley, Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about JAM (Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar, and Mobile) to promote his pet ‘Digital India’ programme. We are exactly in this JAM. We enable cashless transactions of those in small amounts less than Rs 100 and also seamless access to cash for banking customers at convenient time and location,” he said.
The Asia-Pacific Citi Mobile Challenge (CMC) 2015 will have demos in Singapore, Sydney, and Hong Kong. The winner will be announced on December 15.