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STPI is also putting up 25 domain specific centres of entrepreneurship of which 20 are already in place and five are in the process of approval.

Software and service exports from units registered at the centres of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) are estimated to have crossed Rs 5 lakh crore in 2021-22, continuing with the growth trend of the last five years.

Exports from the STPI units were Rs 4.96 lakh crore in 2020-21 and Rs 4.66 lakh crore in 2019-20 according to a  government disclosure.

Exports from STPI centres in Bengal are estimated at Rs 7,500 crore in 2021-22, up from Rs 7,200 crore in 2020-21. STPI is an autonomous body under the Union ministry of electronics and information technology.

Arvind Kumar, who has joined STPI as the director general from his previous role as an adviser in Trai, said there has been no impact of the pandemic on exports from STPI units.

“Covid did not have much effect on the IT sector and the industry immediately adopted the work from home policy. Our expectation this year in terms of exports from the STPI units is that it would be more than Rs 5 lakh crore,” Kumar said on the sidelines of STPI export awards in Bengal.

Kumar said there has been a shift in the focus of the government towards software product development in the country and STPI has been tasked to put up the infrastructure and implement the schemes to incubate more startups. “We have already started boarding startups under the Next Generation Incubation Scheme where the target is to incentivise 300 startups with seed fund of upto Rs 25 lakh,” he said.

STPI is also putting up 25 domain specific centres of entrepreneurship of which 20 are already in place and five are in the process of approval. “The plan is to increase the market share in software products and the centre for entrepreneurship will play a key role in that,” said Kumar adding that there is a plan to nurture around 1,900 plus startups across various emerging technology domains in five years.

He further said the government is working on a scheme whereby existing software majors will be incentivised to move towards tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

“Government is working on the scheme and STPI’s role will be to implement and handhold the industry,” said Kumar.

Debashis Sen, MD WBHIDCO, Rajeev Kumar, principal secretary, department of information technology and electronics, Bengal government and Manjit Nayak, director STPI, Calcutta were also present at the export awards.

* Through this collaboration, STPI's financial technology incubator FinBlue and IIT Madras’ incubation cell would jointly incubate fintech start-ups at different stages.
* Workshops, hackathons, training, and events would be conducted to draw entrepreneurial interest to further strengthen the fintech start-up ecosystem.

The incubation cells at Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) have come together to develop an ecosystem to identify and support financial technology start-ups in the country.

STPI’s AIC STPI NEXT manages the FinBlue Financial Technology Centre of Excellence in Chennai.

Through this collaboration, STPI's financial technology incubator FinBlue and IIT Madras’ incubation cell would jointly incubate start-ups at different stages, developing solutions in financial technology, a press release said.

Workshops, hackathons, training, and events would be conducted to draw entrepreneurial interest to further strengthen the fintech start-up eco system.

"STPI has very domain-specific centres for entrepreneurship, fintech is one of them which is focused on all kinds of financial technologies. We'd like to work together through FinBlue to find the brightest ideas in the fintech arena,” STPI director general Arvind Kumar said.

The collaboration marks another key development in IIT Madras research park vision of ‘Fintech for Inclusion’, a communique from the institute said.

"Majority of the population in the country still do not have access to traditional financial services. Fintech start-ups can intervene in boosting financial inclusion by leveraging the existing financial eco system and emerging technologies," said Ashok Jhunjhunwala, a professor at the IIT-Madras research park.

The start-ups would receive mentorship from industry experts, training, access to a large network of banking and financial institutions, among others.

Public sector Indian Overseas Bank on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and STPINEXT (a Section 8 company of STPI) for leveraging innovation through the financial technologies engaged under the FinBlue initiative.

The MoU was signed in the presence of IOB Managing Director and CEO Partha Pratim Sengupta and STPI Director General Arvind Kumar, the Chennai-headquartered bank said in a statement.

"This MoU will help the bank in leveraging innovation through the financial technologies engaged under the FinBlue initiative," the statement said.

The FinBlue initiative by STPI is an integrated programme to start-ups to scale through its incubation facility. It provides access to the financial technology ecosystem that consists of bankers, financial institutions, mentors, investors among others.

IntelleWings Private Limited, an AI-powered and SaaS enabled AML/CFT (Combating the Financing of Terrorism) Compliance company, today announced that it has raised $650K in pre-Series A round from Dallas Venture Capital (DVC), a cross-border venture capital firm focused on early and growth stage companies in cloud infrastructure, B2B SaaS, AI/ML, mobile, XR and other emerging technologies.

This round saw existing investors like SucSEED Indovation Fund, Padup Ventures and Vinners, reinforce their support with additional capital along with the participation of new investors like Lead Angels and Nextgen Technology Fund I (a fund created by STPI and managed by Pontaq).

With an aim of reducing corruption and terror funding, IntelleWings has developed its proprietary AML/CFT global database for customer screening, a key differentiator, along with CFT Sanctions and Adverse Media checks, it said in a statement.

IntelleWings Eye claims it provides a simplified view for complex transactions and speeds up detection of money laundering patterns.

“Corruption and terrorism can be combated by leveraging technology with focus and depth. IntelleWings is harnessing the power of AI to provide game-changing AML/CFT solutions,” said Pramod Sharma, Founder and CEO of IntelleWings. “The product is built on deep domain and technology expertise and the capital raised in this round will help us in business development, hiring senior leadership and expansion into new markets including the US.”

“Banking and financial institutions globally have come under increased government scrutiny to prevent money laundering by deploying AML solutions,” said Shyam Penumaka, Partner at Dallas Venture Capital. “Over $342 billion in fines have been imposed globally for non-compliance between 2009 to 2017 as per Reuters. There is enormous market potential for IntelleWings, and DVC is excited to partner with IntelleWings in their growth journey with our DVC Advantage program.”

“Global anti-money laundering software market revenue is expected to register a CAGR of 15 percent over the forecast period, and AML software revenues are projected to increase from $1.6 billion in 2021 to $5.7 billion in 2030,” said Vikrant Varshney, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of SucSEED Indovation Fund.

“We were able to identify the potential of IntelleWings on leveraging technology in solving a real-life problem,” said Pankaj Thakar, Founder and Chief Mentor of PadUp Ventures.

Namrata Kaul, former MD of Deutsche Bank, Corporate Banking, led this round from Vinners. “We have been with Pramod for the last two years and this would be our second round of investment,” said Ms. Kaul.