Barclays joins hands with Zone Startups to bring fin-tech accelerator programme Rise to India

British banking and financial services firm Barclays Plc. has partnered with Toronto-based Ryerson Futures-backed technology accelerator Zone Startups to launch its Rise accelerator programme in India.

The Rise accelerator programme, which will be managed by Zone Startups, will commence in early July at Barclays' Rise co-working space in Mumbai, and the first four-month programme will start in early September. This is the fifth accelerator programme being set up by Ryerson Futures under the Zone Startups branding.

Lubaina Manji, head of Rise and Group Innovation Office, Barclays, said that the bank will not be investing in the startups but will use their solutions. The technologies that Barclays will be looking at are blockchain, chatbots, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.

"The past year has seen a lot of action in the fin-tech space, and at Zone Startups, we have closely followed the developments in areas such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics which have been very exciting for some of the top financial services companies," said Ajay Ramasubramaniam, director, Ryerson Futures India and Zone Startups. "Set up in the financial capital, Barclays' Rise Mumbai presents a great opportunity for the fin-tech startup ecosystem in the city, as well as a great soft landing pad for global fin-tech startups wanting to tap the opportunity in Mumbai."

Barclays' Rise platform in Mumbai is its sixth location after London, Manchester, New York, Tel Aviv and Cape Town. It will launch its seventh platform in Vilnius in Lithuania in July 2016. Zone Startups will manage and operate the RISE accelerator programme. RISE Mumbai will provide co-working space for fin-tech companies. The Mumbai site was launched in partnership with startup incubator 91springboard. Besides a co-working space, Rise Mumbai will also organise activities such as hackathons and mentorship programmes for startups.

Zone Startups was set up in 2014 as a joint venture with the BSE Institute and Ryerson Futures Inc, a Toronto-based startup accelerator. Till date, it has built a portfolio of 78 startups.

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