The Fintech Meetup’s 5th edition of the annual Fintech Yatra will be flagged off in Mumbai on Friday. At least 25 venture capitalists have tied up with Fintech Yatra 2023, which will offer $100 million in capital and identify and explore investments in the most promising fintech start-ups. The team this year shall undertake a 12,000 km journey across 20 cities, interacting with an estimated over 400 fintech start-ups.

A select few startups shall be incubated via more comprehensive exposure to financial institutions and pilots, and the best ones amongst them shall get funded. The Yatra includes esteemed venture investors such as DMI Sparkle Fund, Pentathlon Ventures, IIFL Fintech Fund, BEENEXT, July Ventures, Disruptors Capital, Piper Serica, Eximus Ventures, Inflexor Ventures, Ideaspring Capital, Crowdinvest, Arali Ventures, Anicut Capital, Capital-A, Varanium, Impact Investor - Omidyar Network India and more.

Founded by Abhishant Pant, a career banker and fintech expert, the Fintech Yatra has so far interacted with over 2500 fintech start-ups helping them reshape their ideas and access financial institutions to co-create innovative products as well as raise capital.

“We started Fintech Yatra as an experiment back in 2018 to interact with founders and understand the entrepreneurial zeal to solve big and complex problems. We have seen the growth of India’s fintech movement over the last five years, not just in the major cities but also at the grassroots level. We strongly believe that with the right building blocks, first-time entrepreneurs can create a superlative impact and aim to provide the same through the Yatra and beyond,” said Abhishant Pant, founder, The Fintech Meetup and general partner, YAN Angel Fund.

Fintech Yatra has so far invested in 16 fintech start-ups namely Onecard, M2P Fintech, Vayana Network, ShopSe, Payglocal, Riskcovry, Tartan, DataSutram, PhiCommerce, Finvu, Converj, Savart, 42 Cards, and a few more. Quite a few others are currently being mentored and are on the road to raising money.

“Fintech Yatra is an outreach initiative set up for fintech founders to accelerate their journey. Fintech is a key focus area for our fund, and we look forward to adding value to some of the interesting ideas that emerge from this year’s Fintech Yatra,” said Abhay Agarwal, founder and fund manager, Piper Serica.

“Fintech Yatra is a great initiative for fintech start-ups to get access to all three immediate requirements that a start-up founder needs - mentoring, network access, and venture capital. In addition, our association helps the most promising ideas and founders from the Fintech Yatra to scale as they go through their startup journey,” said Gireendra Kasmalkar, managing partner, Pentathlon Ventures.

“The Fintech segment has a great potential to bring impact at a larger scale for all stakeholders by efficiently leveraging capital and technology. An association with a program like Fintech Yatra is a great avenue for us to back innovative ideas that address the large market,” said TR Suresh, managing partner, July Ventures.