Mumbai: Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank, is launching an exclusive networking property, Axis Start-up Social, at a ‘one-of-its-kind’ event aimed at supporting the country’s start-up ecosystem. ‘Axis Start-up Social’ will go ‘live’ recently at a gathering of the country’s leading start-up players at ‘WeWork’ a leading co-working place in Bengaluru.

The objective of this platform is to provide an opportunity for start-ups to network and share knowledge. Significantly, this initiative firmly underlines the Bank’s unflinching commitment towards providing multiple opportunities for start-ups in India to thrive and scale to the next-level-of-growth. The unveiling of ‘Axis Start-up Social’ comes close on the heels of the launch of the bank’s innovation lab, Thought Factory, which looks to aid start-ups to expand, besides opening up avenues with potential investors and companies. The Bank also launched its Axis Start-up Banking product earlier this year, which is bundled with all key technology-enabled products and caters comprehensively to banking needs of start-ups. Over 100 leading names among the start-up community are expected to converge at the launch.

 India continues to be a hotbed for start-ups, especially with the Government’s relentless focus to provide a congenial environment for them to conduct business. As per a recent Nasscom Startup Report, the year has seen an addition of over 1,000 start-ups bolstering India’s position as one of the leading start-up ecosystems across the world. This takes the total number of technology start-ups in the country to over 5,000, as per the Report. Importantly, while Technology continues to dominate conversations, start-ups in other sectors such as Healthcare, and Education and Logistics have also gathered pace.

Speaking about the initiative, Sidharth Rath, Group Executive, Corporate & Transaction Banking, Axis Bank said, “We are excited to launch Axis Start-up Social, a platform through which we hope to provide the much required, ‘extra edge’ to the start-up community by hand holding them, sharing knowledge and providing the required financial solutions. Today, the Indian ecosystem is flooded with innovative ideas but what is missing is the presence of the right channel and guidance in terms of acceleration, scaling up and funding. Through Axis Start-up Social, we endeavour to create an ecosystem to encourage innovation and the next-level-of-growth opportunities to start-ups that are ready to take that leap.”