Axis Bank, India’s’s third largest private lender, has partnered with integrated incubator Venture Catalysts (VCAT) to provide corporate banking services, including financial support and tech-based solutions, to startups.

Startups can scale up their businesses and manage their existing processes in a more cost efficient and tech savvy manner thanks to this banking service, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday.

The success rate of startups in India is low mostly due to either unavailability or improper handling of funds, the bank said.

Apart from incubating and providing support to upcoming startups, VCAT will also provide mentoring and expertise imperative to hone business ideation, it said, adding that for startups at a bootstrapping stage, Axis Bank will waive off the banking transaction fee for the first two years.

SM Sundaresan, group executive and corporate banking head, Axis Bank said startups his bank and VCAT will help startups save cost and perform more efficiently. “We continue to focus on this segment and provide emerging ventures with similar banking-related services that we offer to our big corporate clients. Axis Bank has also established an in-house innovation lab called 'Axis Thought Factory' that houses fintech-based startups.”

Axis Bank and VCAT are also working towards extending this facility to entrepreneurship beyond the metropolitan cities and tier-1 hubs, the statement said. Going forward, startups from emerging tier-2 and tier-3 markets will also be included in the ambit to help in advancement of the larger technological ecosystem.

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First Published:Sept 26, 2018 12:56 PM IST