In the first phase, SmartUp Zones will be launched in the Gachibowli branch in the city, catering to all the startups located in Telengana.

By | Business Bureau | Published: 6:01 pm 6:10 pm

Hyderabad: HDFC Bank on Wednesday announced the launch of a SmartUp Zone in Hyderabad, which is an exclusive area inside the branch dedicated to startups.

In the first phase, SmartUp Zones will be launched in the Gachibowli branch in the city, catering to all the startups located in Telengana. There are about 2,000 startups based in Hyderabad with about 350 accounts with HDFC Bank.

Nationally, SmartUp Zones will be launched in over 65 branches in 30 cities across India, including tier 2 and 3 cities. Through these zones bank staff will offer tailor-made banking and advisory solutions to entrepreneurs. Furthermore, by accessing the bank’s new SmartUp portal, startups will be able to tap into the knowledge and experience of a complete network of startups while simultaneously offering their services.

The enhanced offering includes end-to-end banking solutions customised to suit their requirements, specially trained, dedicated staff to cater to start-up needs, assistance with partnerships and alliances in terms of cost savings and growth levers, access to HDFC Bank’s SmartBuy platform, which allows them to market their product to the general public and showcase of products to over 40 million HDFC Bank customers.

“After the launch of SmartUp last year, we are taking offerings for startups to the next level this year. We have also revamped the SmartUp product suite to include escrow accounts for investors and demat shares for these unlisted companies for raising funds,” said Madhusudan Hegde, branch banking head (south), HDFC Bank.

Recently the bank also announced the launch of industry academia where it will work with the incubation and entrepreneurship cells at IIT Bombay, IIT Roorkee and IIM Ahmedabad to mentor startups at these institutions. The Bank intends to take this programme across other leading educational institutions in India.