IIMA’s CIIE.CO Collaborates with RBI’s Innovation Hub to Enable Credit Access for Women MSMEs
- ByStartupStory | August 23, 2023
IIM Ahmedabad’s startup incubator, CIIE.CO, has announced a partnership with the Reserve Bank of India’s subsidiary, Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH), for this year’s Swanari Techsprint 2023 program. Swanari Techsprint, organized by RBIH, is an annual initiative providing a platform to conceive, develop, and support technological innovations that enhance the accessibility, usage, and quality of financial services for women in India. Registrations for the program are open until September 11, 2023.
Winners of Swanari Techsprint will have the opportunity to conduct a paid Proof of Concept (POC) with private sector lender HDFC Bank and present for pre-seed investment at CIIE.CO. Additionally, the selected startups will receive mentoring and networking prospects from CIIE.CO. Supriya Sharma, who leads the research function at CIIE.CO, noted, “Women entrepreneurs own and lead less than 20 percent of the MSMEs in India. Among several other factors, access to capital is a significant obstacle for women seeking to establish and expand their businesses. We are excited to collaborate with RBIH to help address this substantial need.”
RBIH closely collaborates with the ecosystem through its various programs to develop solutions for specific problem statements. The current edition of TechSprint concentrates on bridging the gender gap by fostering innovative digital STP (straight through process) lending solutions customized for women entrepreneurs.
Notably, out of over 2 crore businesses registered on the Udyam registration portal, 19.43 percent were owned by women, according to data shared by Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, Minister of State in the MSME Ministry in recent parliamentary discussions.
Last week, RBIH launched the pilot project of RBI’s Public Tech Platform for Frictionless Credit, which focuses on non-collateral MSME loans, Kisan Credit Card loans up to Rs 1.6 lakh per borrower, Dairy Loans, Personal loans, and Home loans through participating banks.
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