Citi has launched a corporate accelerator program in Asia Pacific to engage with startups from countries like India. The 8-10 week program called Citi Mobile Challenge will combine a virtual hackathon and incubator. Citi is inviting developers from across the region to participate. The program aims to help Citi avoid disruption from new fintech startups in areas like payments, mobile wallets, and cryptocurrencies. Citi is partnering with companies like IBM, Google, Amazon, Microsoft Ventures, PwC, and Wipro to help identify startups in sectors like ecommerce and payments for the program.

1. Citi Wakes Up to
Startups
Has launched a accelerator programme that will
combine a virtual hackathon with an incubator

2. Contd..
In his annual letter to share holders in April, JP Morgan Chase CEO
Jamie Dimon warned of a wave of dis ruption in the traditional banking
sec tor originating from startup hubs such as Silicon Valley. “Silicon
Valley is coming,“ he warned. Thinking alike, SBI made a trip to
Bengaluru and sat in the front rows of a startup session listening to
how dis ruptive technologies and fledgling ventures are making their
presence felt in the financial services industry.
“We were surprised to see how these people are developing working
on technologies to solve some of the problems we didn't even know
exist ed,“ SBI CIO Mrutyunjay Mahapatra told ET.

3. Contd..
Traditional, stodgy lenders for long have dominated the financial services
space and controlled most as pects of lending, payments and in vestments.
With the emergence of new-age fintech startups and the ad vent of mobile
and internet banking, tech-savvy consumers have been pre sented with
alternatives for financial solutions that have the potential to significantly
disrupt traditional banking. Which is why they are ac tively engaging with
startups to avoid disruption from payment banks, mo bile wallets, new-age
financial tech nology startups and crypto-curren cies such as Bitcoin.
On Thursday, Citi launched a corpo rate accelerator programme for the
AsiaPacific region to engage actively with star tups from countries like India.
The 8-10 week accelerator programme, called the Citi Mobile Challenge, will
combine a virtual hackathon with an incubator and Citi is inviting developers
from all across the region to participate in this programme.

4. Contd..
Citibank India's head of consumer banking Kartik Kaushik said that the bank
had already started engaging with a number of startups in India.
“This is the first time we're opening up APIs,“ he said, referring to the
software tools that allow building of applications. “We've taken a long time
to get here, but it's always better late than never.“
For this exercise, Citi is partnering with a number of Indian and multinational
corporates to help handpick startups in sectors such as ecommerce and
payments. IBM, Google, Amazon Microsoft Ventures, PwC Wipro and
Nasscom's 10,000 startups programme are among those who have signed up
as partners for this initiative. HDFC Bank has tried to cash in on the digital
boom with its PayZapp app that combines deals and offers from online
retailers with its payment solution. It has also bought a minority stake in
auto classifieds portal CarDekho.

5. For details and bookings contact:-
Parveen Kumar Chadha… THINK TANK
(Founder and C.E.O of Saxbee Consultants & Other-Mother
marketingandcommunicationconsultants.com)
Email :-saxbeeconsultants@gmail.com
Mobile No. +91-9818308353
Address:-First Floor G-20(A), Kirti Nagar, New Delhi India Postal Code-110015