Andhra to sponsor Rs 500cr fund for fintechs by March 2018

Andhra Pradesh is creating a Rs 500-crore fund by March 2018 which will be investing in startups in the emerging financial technologies space, a senior government official said today.
"We will be putting Rs 100 crore from the state government and raising Rs 400 crore from entities like Sidbi as co-investors for the fintech fund," J A Chowdary, the IT advisor for the 2014 bifurcated state, told reporters here.
He said the government will be selecting a fund manager through a bidding process who will be deciding on specifics like ticket sizes of investment, and is also in talks with investors who can pool in money.

The process has already been initiated and the government expects the fund to be operational by March 2018.
The fund is a part of government efforts to create a 'Fintech Valley' in Vishakapatnam, wherein it is trying to create an ecosystem with research and development, and also delivery-based work in areas like blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics.
In the last one year, it has already seen investments of over USD 20 million by names like Broadridge Financial Solutions, Paytm, Thomson Reuters and Visa choosing to set up base there, he said.

Three more US-headquartered "big multinationals" are expected to move into the facility soon, he said, declining to share names as the necessary agreements are yet to be signed.

The new companies will open centres with a seating capacity of up to 500 people each, Chowdary said.
But more than the large enterprises, who will use the facility to have research centres and as delivery centres, it is the startups which are the primary target for the valley.
Chowdary said it is targeting to engage with 50 startups this fiscal in various ways, including housing around a dozen of them in four new accelerators launched today.
For the startups to understand the industry's problems better, it has got 20 large institutions to share 'use cases' which can be used as a case study, he said.