In an effort to support the work of Indian startups working on their first products or services, YES SCALE, an accelerator programme, was launched by Yes Bank.

Mumbai-based Yes Bank has a presence in India since its founding in 2004. The financial services company will be investing Rs 4.5 crore into the programme.

“This is fully in line with the bank’s vision since inception — which was to cater to the sunrise sectors of India’s economy using knowledge banking to deliver impactful ecosystem solutions,” Rana Kapoor, CEO of Yes Bank said.

Approximately 80 per cent of technology-based startups throughout India do not receive investments for their initial product, service or offering, according to the IFOR 2018 report by the banking company.

The YES SCALE programme will look to support startups in a variety of sectors and provide pilot grants worth around or below Rs 20 lakh.

“YES SCALE: AGRITECH – will help us align digital technology solutions to address key business challenges in our business model and also scale up the startup ecosystem,” Sanjay Sharma, CEO of MTR Foods, said.

Through the programme, Yes Bank will also look to provide startups with investments to test out their first product or service. Combining both physical mentorship as well as assistance on a digital level, the program will run for 15 weeks.

“The success of two cohorts of YES Fintech have demonstrated our strengths in partnering with fintechs to co-create industry changing banking solutions,” Kapoor said. “Now, with YES SCALE, we will replicate this model across our focus sectors to build deep interventions jointly with our corporate clients.”

In addition to the other benefits of the programme, selected startups will also receive financial support via cloud credits and other digital means, and will not be selling stakes to the bank as part of the programme.

“Our partners will create use cases and help understand what part of their business can be improvised using tech,” Shah said. “They will also dedicate leaders to handhold and be mentors besides creating a sandbox environment for testing. Many are willing to coinvest as well.”

Startups chosen for the programme will come from technology-based startups with a focus on environmentalism, agriculture, science, and education. Amul, ITC, and MTR Foods are among future partners of Yes Bank for the YES SCALE programme.

(Picture courtesy: Finance Minutes)