Ahmedabad, Jan 31 (IANS): The HDFC Bank on Thursday joined hands with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to launch its first regional DIS Summit, a platform for start-ups to showcase their innovations to power the bank's growth.

"After successfully having the DIS Summit at the national level for three successive years, we are launching our first regional summit in Ahmedabad. More than 150 start-ups have participated and out of that we have selected 24 for the final three," Nitin Chugh, Country Head - Digital Banking, HDFC Bank said.

"We are confident that through this platform, we will br able to identify potential fin-tech entrepreneurs working on innovative applications and partner with them for the betterment of our customers," he added.

Chugh said apart from entries from Ahmedabad, Surat, Vapi and Vadodara, start-ups from Israel and Poland have also participated.

"This is an important milestone for us. After this summit, we will be having similar summits in other parts of the country. Since starting such a summit in 2016, we have had more than 10 start-ups who have good innovative products and are working with us," added Chugh.

"More than 85 per cent of our transactions are in the digital form and we are constantly looking forward on how to give our customers a better experience in banking. These innovative start-ups can provide a way to that," said Rohit Panchal, Corporate Communication Head, HDFC Gujarat.

The Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM-A will help the bank identify potential fin-tech ideas in its incubation and entrepreneurship cell in its initial phase. Another partner in the summit is 91springboard, a platform for stakeholders like start-ups, corporates and the government to have successful ventures.