Bank of Baroda, an Indian multinational public sector banking services is a recent one to join the startup mania. It initiates a new programme to lend nearly 1000 startups by holding the fast-growing companies in their formative years.
The state-owned bank has opened branches around 10 cities and towns. It plans to add five more within two weeks by focusing on reaching 1000 startup companies in the next two years.
Akhil Handa, head-fintech commented that
“Through these dedicated branches, we plan to offer them current accounts, payments gateways, credit cards and also a loan of up to Rs 2 crore.
The companies which qualify for a loan will either have to have an angel investment earlier or have to be recognised by the DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade). We have also engaged experts from IIT Bombay to help these companies prepare a business plan and examine it for a bank.”
Last year, Bank of Baroda initiated to start branches to lend 20 crores to 19 startups.
“These companies have grown rapidly, and some of them have a turnover of 50 crores or more. We are seeing this as a business opportunity to catch these companies young and increase engagement with them as they become bigger,” Handa adds.
Bank of Baroda has collaborated with IBM, 91Springboard, along with legal and accounting service companies to foster these startups with cloud credits by offering workspaces and legal advice.
The government bank special programme is spread across Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Jaipur, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Hyderabad, Pune, and Ahmedabad. Within the next two weeks, the bank is going to spend Indore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Chandigarh, and Kochi to its startup network programme.
