Kotak Securities earmarks Rs 50 crore for its accelerator programme

Kotak Securities on Tuesday said that it has set aside an initial investment corpus of Rs 50 crore for its maiden Start-up Investment and Engagement programme. The brokerage stated that through this programme, they will be incubating and investing into innovative fintech and technology start-up companies. Speaking about the brokerage’s venture into start-up incubation, Jaideep Hansraj, managing director and chief executive officer, said that he believes technology innovation will gauge the competitiveness of a broking firm.

“Developing technology involves money and time. It is with this purpose that we have launched our investment and engagement programme where we will partner and pick minority stake in fintech companies that makes strategic sense to Kotak Securities,” said Jaideep Hansraj. Kotak Securities on Tuesday said that it has set up a corporate development department for this initiative and has set aside an initial investment corpus of Rs 50 crore.

The brokerage stated that it will launch incubator or accelerator programmes, hackathons, networking events, pitching sessions and demo day programmes for early stage start-ups in-house as well as with other incubator or accelerator groups. According to the brokerage, there will be a dedicated section on the Kotak Securities website where interested start-ups can register and submit innovative ideas and products for evaluation and find various updates under the programme.