Private sector Axis Bank, has successfully concluded the second season of its most ambitious project the “THOUGHT FACTORY” on 21 st July 2017 at diamond district Bangalore. The startup accelerator program at its Innovation Lab “THOUGHT FACTORY” is unique and first of its kind by a bank in India.
Driven by a passion to develop innovative and path breaking solutions for banking industry in specific, the third largest private sector bank of the country Axis bank has completed its “First Graduation Day” as a part of startup accelerator program which nurtured and mentored a total of six startup’s as a part of its first cohort.
The sole aim of this project is to make Axis Bank the first complete and wholly Digitalized Bank of India. The boldest decision of Demonetization was taken by the Honorable Prime Minister on 08th November 2016 has fueled the fire and desire by multiple folds to accomplish this into a very successful mission.
From a pool of 108 entrepreneurial start-up’s the innovation Lab THOUGHT FACTORY has initially managed to shortlist a total of six start-up’s in the emerging areas which are expected to be the biggest game changer of the century in the fintech space of Payments, Investments, Lending Analytics and Credit in rental space.
The six startups shortlisted by the bank are S2Pay, Pally, Perpule, FintechLabs, Paymatrix, and Gieom. Axis bank is confident that these start ups would redefine banking in the digital era and pioneer the move for the modern day banking.
A tech advisory board comprising of eminent panelists from various verticals like Sharad Sharma (iSpirit), Manish Chokhani (Enam), Vishal Gondal (Founder, GoQii) and Shankar Narayan (Singapore based serial entrepreneur) along with Axis Bank Senior Management form the ThinkTank for Thought Factory were present at the graduation day to mentor and share their experiences.
“Besides the Accelerator start-ups, the Bank, along with the Thought Factory team, has been working with other upcoming start-ups too,” Axis Bank Executive Director Rajiv Anand said. He further added that the idea behind this program is to accelerate the overall growth of these emerging startups and to explore novel banking ideas in the undiscovered segment of the banking sector.
Here’s a glimpse of six startups that have graduated from the THOUGHT FATORY:
Pally: Using AI, Pally enables businesses in the financial domain to deliver better customer experiences. It has created a chatbot that creates an investment portfolio for tax savings when it is fed an image of a salary slip.
S2Pay: The startup fundamentally enables offline mobile payments. S2Pay’s solution forms a layer over any payments app and users can make secure payments from their mobile app, even when they are offline.
Perpule: A Kalaari Capital-funded startup, Perpule allows users to scan products from their mobile app and pay from within the app once the list is complete.
FintechLabs: This is a lending management platform that offers different analytical models that can be used in the digital spending space. It offers a bunch of solutions including loan management software, peer-to- peer lending marketplace software, bank statement analyzer, and ID proof verification software.
Paymatrix: This startup is a property rent management platform connecting tenants and landlords. It automates the rent collection process through different payment options, offers customized rental agreements, rental insurance and provides tenant screening services.
Gieom: This firm offers cloud-based solutions and analytics to help large firms manage their operations, employee productivity, change management, and risk and compliance. It also helps banks transition smoothly to new IT systems.
The Thought Factory also runs an in-house incubator which works with three other startups to build innovative products. The bank is building a chatbot named ALEXA with Active AI to provide speedy redressal of customer queries via chat, an AI-based smart video-surveillance product with Uncanny Vision; and an innovation management platform with Worxogo that uses persuasive technology for aligning work behaviors with work processes.
Uncanny Vision: Uncanny surveillance an AI-based smart video-surveillance product which has the capabilities of human activity recognition, face recognition, object recognition, and self-learning capabilities. This tool is built on IoT based cloud computing to safeguard and protect of ATM’s from cyber threats like skimming of cards and prevention on intrusion from malware and ransomware.
Worxogo: A dedicated tool in innovation management platform which uses persuasive technology for aligning work behaviors with work process. The employee’s ideas are transformed into actions to achieve the desired results.
Alexa: An artificial chatbot indigenously built by the bank with an active AI interface to provide speedy redressal of customer queries as well as grievances via chat and an interactive voice response system.
Niki.ai: Niki is an AI-based personal assistant which helps book online movie tickets, pay postpaid bills, electricity bills, utility bill payments, mobile & Dishtv recharge, book cabs at best prices, buses, hotels and many more.