SBI signs MoU with IIT Bombay to promote startups

For supporting innovation and entrepreneurship, the leading public bank State Bank of India has signed a memorandum of understanding with Indian Institute of Technology. The IIT Bombay’s technology business incubator has decided to promote innovation and startups in the financial sector through their wing Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) with the help of SBI.

According to the COO of SINE, Poyni Bhatt, “This MoU will definitely help in mentoring startups. SBI now has a Rs. 200 crore fund for startups and what better place than SINE at IIT Bombay to reach out to startups to use those funds.”

The institute further issued a statement in which it stated, “As per the MoU, both the parties will identify FinTech startups that have products or applications to cater to the financial sector and can help SBI explore opportunities to enhance the synergy for their banking services. SBI will provide a platform for testing/piloting such products/applications and maybe also check for any specific business linkages.”

In order to get a better picture of the latest research and innovations in the startup market, the SBI would interact with entrepreneurial research community at IIT Bombay including e-cell, Desai Centre etc. The MoU would also help startups that are operating out of SINE or those promoted by SINE for early stages of funding within the bank norms. SINE would help SBI to get a clear picture about the technical competency, product roadmap, innovation subjects, impact of innovation etc. before the bank invests their funds in a particular startup.