The lender will extend loans of up to Rs 50 crore to these startups for their working capital requirements or purchase of machinery and equipment, among others.

The bank’s Managing Director and CEO Padmaja Chunduru said it is a known fact that banks find it difficult to fund startups as they do not meet the requirements under traditional models of financing.

Business models involving high technology, lack of visibility of cash flows, high burn rate, and high failure rate make the due diligence process for assessing viability difficult for banks, she said.

As a result, this segment has been almost completely funded by seed capital, or private equity from India/abroad, Chunduru said.

Startups were depending more on equity and they had to share profit and ownership of the company to venture capital firms, private equity players or angel investors for mobilising funds, she said.

However, in case of debt, the startup just needs to pay interest and principal to the bank, she said.