Societe Generale’s Catalyst 2.0 accelerates nine startups

So far 29 startups including the current nine have been mentored in three batches under Catalyst, Societe Generale’s accelerator programme.

Societe Generale Global Solution Centre (SG GSC) recently hosted a ‘Demo Day’ for Catalyst 2.0, the second edition of its accelerator programme, in Bengaluru. Nine startups that were accelerated in the 10-week programme under Catalyst 2.0 gave a demo of their innovative technology solutions.

Rathnaprabha Manickavachagam, Head of Innovation, SG GSC said, “Societe Generale believes that open innovation is one of the key levers that can accelerate its digital transformation. Being a large financial institution, through Catalyst, we have seen how new and emerging technology solutions could be adapted rapidly through fast paced agile experiments (in 10 weeks)”

Catalyst, Societe Generale’s accelerator programme, was launched in 2016 and so far 29 startups including the current nine have graduated in three batches. The current batch was focused on accelerating deep technology adoption and digital transformation for Societe Generale businesses worldwide.

Rathnaprabha adds, “We have discovered opportunities to introduce new experiences and business models for our customers in our car-leasing and international banking areas. We have also accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence technology in our corporate investing banking back office operations and accounting areas.”

These nine startups, which were selected after screening more than 200 applications, are working in the areas of payments, e-wallet, predictive analytics, digital on-boarding / know your client, tech for good, HR tech, among others.

During the course of acceleration, startups get an opportunity to enhance their existing product offerings in terms of new dimensions, scale and geographies.

Talking about the engagement Rathnaprabha says, “Nearly 50 percent of the solutions co-created with the participating startups have been adopted. We have signed medium-term contracts with these startups to develop their solutions to the required scale for global implementations. We have received interest from several global Societe Generale entities to implement similar solutions for their business problems.”

Here is a brief description of the nine startups that were part of the Catalyst 2.0 accelerator programme.

Recital.ai – As employees we all have felt burdened with the experienced proliferation of emails in our inboxes. This French startup has partnered with Societe Generale to create a solution that drafts auto-replies and prevents data leakage using natural language processing and machine learning.

CVViZ -- Every recruiter goes through a large number of resumes manually to shortlist a handful of candidates. CVViZ standardises and automates the process using artificial intelligence. Amit Gawande, Co-founder, CVViZ says, “The platform screens, ranks and benchmarks the resumes. Using our algorithm, the internal mobility can be streamlined, saving time and attrition rate.”

Gavs -- This startup’s offerings include automation-led infrastructure services, enabled by smart machines, devops and predictive analytics. The predictive analytics platform uses intelligent and insightful data aggregation to provide proactive and predictive risk management. The predictive algorithms correlate events and hidden patterns within any data to empower IT users and the business to make insightful decisions to manage operations efficiently. S. Chandra Mouleswaran, Vice President, Infrastructure Management, Gavs says, “The focus is to reduce incidents through automation. The algorithm aggregates information from multiple sources to deliver predictive insights.”

Scapic – This startup provides a platform where the users/businesses can build a content tool for creating and exploring virtual reality and augmented reality experiences. Ajay Venkatesh, Co-founder, Scapic says, “Here, at Societe Generale, we are trying to solve the problems in their automotive lease division (ALD). The technology will help them build a visual representation and one will be able to annotate on that.”

Fyle -- It is a platform for expense automation and management. Using computer vision and machine learning, the algorithm can read data across different forms of receipts on an email account, including images. It helps in intelligent receipt tracking, one-click expense reports, mileage tracking for enterprises. Yashwant Madhusudhan, Founder, Fyle says, “We are eliminating any kind of manual effort from the time of expense creation into the system to approval process, the audit process and the pay-out process.”

UDIO / TranServ -- They enable B2B and B2C payments using their wallet services. The expense management solution includes managing expenses digitally, distribution of tax benefit vouchers and gifts for the employees. Its control and analytics feature creates dashboards for finance and HR teams to help them report and analyse. It also helps corporates track employee spends, ensure compliance and paperless management.

Signzy -- The team at Signzy is trying to solve the problem of trust in the digital regulatory processes. They offera digital on-boarding solution for banks, NBFCs and other financial institutions. Signzy’s APIs help companies comply with the RBI’s KYC norms and AML/CFT guidelines in an automated and hassle-free way using artificial intelligence and advanced cryptography.

Ankit Ratan, Co-founder, Signzy says, “Unlike India, in Europe, there is no Aadhaar to on-board. We are building an app, where the user can digitally on-board for Societe Generale. We track all the digital regulatory compliances in a convenient and secure manner. ”

FRS Labs -- The technology company specialises in customer on-boarding (KYC), authentication and fraud prevention solutions for businesses. Shankar, Founder at FRS Labs says, “When customers are on-boarded in a self-mode manner, we enable the enterprise to help in identifying, authenticating and in detection of fraud or malicious act.”

GreenPool – It is an on-demand car pooling platform built for mobile users. It is aimed at people who want to share their rides with others from similar backgrounds and preferences. Its unique ride-matching algorithm finds the right people for the ride and blocks those one does not want to share the ride with.

Ravikumar Kumaraswamy, Founder at Green Pool, says, “The trust level among colleagues is significantly higher than others, hence car pooling with colleagues is much comfortable for a user. The unique algorithm leverages this fact and find matches within the same company that a user works for or professionals working in the same IT park.”