Andhra Pradesh’s Fintech Valley gathers steam; Fintech Startup Challenge launched

VISAKHAPATNAM: In a bid to transform the picturesque commercial capital of Andhra Pradesh, Visakhapatnam, into a national and global hub for financial technology (Fintech), under the leadership of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, is building a complete eco-system including Fintech start-up entrepreneurs, innovators, incubators, investors and academia. Several Fintech startups including India's largest mobile commerce firm, PayTM, Blocktrust, Knolskape, Transaction Analyst, GMS, ValueLabs have commenced operations at the Fintech Valley, Vizag.

India’s premier banking and financial institutions such as ICICI Bank, ICICI Lombard, HDFC Life, Bharti AXA and Angel Broking have also associated with Fintech Valley to launch the Fintech Startup Challenge.

ICICI Bank Challenge - This challenge will evaluate innovative fintech solutions for ICICI’s Bank’s banking business. Start-ups and individuals are invited to develop solutions leveraging the opportunities of digital payments, transfers and remittances.

ICICI Lombard Challenge - With their problem area – ‘IoT around property and logistics’, ICICI Lombard is inviting innovative IoT solutions that can forecast, detect and monitor risks in real-time and make calculated interventions to decrease risks in logistics, inventory management, property upkeep and factory or plant management.

HDFC Life Challenge - This challenge is an opportunity for start-ups, Insurtech firms and individuals to develop a solution which can aid in digitization of the acquisition and policy servicing process by enabling transition from physical documentation capture to electronic fulfilment of data needs.

Bharti AXA Challenge - This challenge is an opportunity for start-ups, insurtech firms and individuals to develop a solution to identify adverse selection of lives, where insurance policy is taken with an intention of making fraudulent claims.

Angel Broking Challenge - ‘Real Time Social Profiling of Customers’, Angel Broking is looking for a solution that would enable real time social profiling of new and existing customers, on the basis of attributes such as demography, income bracket, age, social data (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) and mobile application usage (e.g. presence on financial applications such as Moneycontrol, Yahoo Finance, etc.).

The challenge is open to start-up, entrepreneurs, innovators and developers and provides them an opportunity to win INR 15,00,000 divided between Insurance, Capital Markets and Banking.

There are added benefits such as:
· Showcase the solution to Indian financial industry leaders at Spring Conference on March 9 – 10, 2017, which will bring the Fintech community together and have a broader conversation on issues integral to Fintech such as blockchain, cyber security, artificial intelligence
· Receive coaching and mentoring by corporate partner
· Free office space for 6 months in Fintech Tower, Vizag
· Wild card entry to future challenges in 2017
· Special ‘Jury Award’ for the chosen Fintech start-up
There are five corporate partners of these challenges and all five have identified problem areas where they need startup entrepreneurs and firms to find solutions. We have attached five separate press releases for your reference:
1. Angel Broking Challenge: Real-time social profiling
2. Bharti Axa: Fraudulent behaviour detection
3. ICICI Lombard: IoT around Property and Logistics
4. ICICI Bank: Payments and remittances
5. HDFC Life: Create signature and photo verification tool