Sanjay Mehta, Amrish Rau to spot fund startups at Maharashtra govt fintech event

India Fintech Festival, a programme organised by the government of Maharashtra to drive fintech innovations, has announced the launch of its 2020 drive ‘FInD the Next Unicorn’. It has sought applications from early-stage fintech startups looking to raise upto $1 million in seed funding. 

Startups can send their submissions from February 6 to February 14 and the ten selected candidates would be announced on March 5, a statement said. 

Inspired by American TV series Shark Tank, the programme is a business reality event to showcase fintech startups looking to raise funding from a panel of five marquee investors including PayU India CEO Amrish Rau and venture capital firm 100X.VC founder Sanjay Mehta. The startups, which must be based out of India, should have a consumer-facing ready product and be generating some revenue.

“In addition to the spot funding commitment, FInD the Next Unicorn will also give a massive exposure to these startups by bringing them to the centre stage of the fintech ecosystem and help them get noticed by more investors willing to support them,” Suniti Nanda, fintech officer at the Maharashtra government’s Mumbai Fintech Hub, said.

The programme is coordinated by Mumbai Fintech Hub, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Fintech Convergence Council (FCC). The Department of Financial Services, NITI Aayog, Invest India, Digital India, World Bank, United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and Medici have also supported it.