Meet the newest fintech whizkids at PayPal's incubator

PayPal picked start-ups for its year-long Start Tank incubation programme in Chennai. Here, Tech in Asia profiles the firms

Nimble start-ups have been disrupting the industry by developing and deploying technology – from cryptocurrency blockchains to payment gateways, remittance channels, and lending platforms. To keep their place, let alone move ahead, the tech giants have to innovate and do it fast. 

Top payments company PayPal set up its own incubator called Start Tank to find and mentor young fintech start-ups two years ago. The incubator, housed in PayPal’s technology centre in Chennai, provides start-ups with technology and business mentorship, infrastructure support, and networking opportunities with investors and customers.

Earlier this year, PayPal invited applications for a place in its incubator from start-ups focused on core payment features. From over 125 applicants, four emerged as winners. 

CashFree

CashFree enables digital payments for businesses and attempts to make cashless payments smoother for consumers. This includes payments for food delivery or express checkout at supermarkets. This Bengaluru-based start-up was founded by Akash Sinha and Reeju Datta.
 

D-Rewards

D-Rewards is a mobile based, real-time, digital plug-and-play customer relationship management (CRM) tool for small businesses. It helps them create loyalty programmes to connect, engage and retain customers. This Chennai-based start-up was founded by Vijay Krishna and Shoaib Mohammed.
 

Ftcash

Ftcash aims to power mobile payments for micro-merchants. It builds tools for them to accept payments through debit cards, credit cards and mobile wallets. This Mumbai-based start-up was founded by Sanjeev Chandak, Deepak Kothari and Vaibhav Lodha – alumni of IIT, Wharton Business School and Shri Ram College of Commerce.
 

Notifie

Notifie is an app for business-to-customer communication. Founded by Dr. N. Raja Chinnathamby and Arun Nedunchezian, the Chennai-based start-up has paying customers from the education, financial and retail industries.

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the fulla article here.