#vleadersFintech: Meet Sandipan Chakraborty of SONECT
08.09.2017
Leaving to New York on September 10 until September 16, this year’s venture leaders Fintechforming the "Swiss National Startup Team Fintech 2017" reflect the impressive quality of Swiss startups, whose innovations come from the best universities and research institutes of Switzerland. Learn more about their growth objectives prior to the trip in our short interview series, running in August/September on venturelab.ch, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
 Sandipan Chakraborty
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You can see the whole campaign on twitter.com/venturelab_ch searching the hashtag #vleadersFintech.
Meet our last venture leader today, Sandipan Chakraborty, the CEO of SONECT. The startup enables every shop in the neighbourhood to act as a virtual ATM and democratizes the process of cash distribution so that a significant portion of the value chain can be eliminated in order to make the process faster, cheaper and safer.
Why do you choose New York as your business development destination?
A bold vision needs a strong platform. US being the most open towards startups that aim to disrupt an industry and an early presence there would definitely help us connect with a) global investors b) global banks.
What do you want to achieve on the trip?
This trip is a strong opportunity to open up doors of leading VCs investing globally and meet potential customers. Although US has crossed the tipping point and is trying to reduce their dependency on cash, 48% of consumer payment is still done using cash there. You would be surprised to know it may cost you up to $4 per withdrawal from an ATM in some of the states. Although cashback is possible at a supermarket, SONECT can be a great solution to bring cashback to neighborhood stores and recycle cash in a much more decentralized way in order to reduce its cost. Just like UBER or AirBnB, we want to be the largest network of ATM (neighborhood stores) without owning any and US is the ideal country to realize such a bold vision.
Why is venture leaders Fintech beneficial for your company?
It helps us in 2 ways. Over the years, this program has established itself as a recognition of excellence. It is already an honor for team SONECT to be part of this coverable program. Since the announcement, we are receiving inbound interests from investors, potential clients and we are confident this would help us grow faster. Secondly, this program puts us in the global landscape. I think it would be a great opportunity to learn from those who understand what it takes to scale a startup globally.
Have you been to New York before?
Unfortunately, not yet. This is the first time I will be crossing the Atlantic – hence, very excited. Have heard a lot about rooftop venues where most of the business deals are done. I am looking forward to be part of some of them and experience it first hand. We also won the IMD Startup competition and will be in Silicon Valley along with their EMBA students. Looks like a lot of travel in September is ahead of us.
Meet our last venture leader today, Sandipan Chakraborty, the CEO of SONECT. The startup enables every shop in the neighbourhood to act as a virtual ATM and democratizes the process of cash distribution so that a significant portion of the value chain can be eliminated in order to make the process faster, cheaper and safer.
Why do you choose New York as your business development destination?
A bold vision needs a strong platform. US being the most open towards startups that aim to disrupt an industry and an early presence there would definitely help us connect with a) global investors b) global banks.
What do you want to achieve on the trip?
This trip is a strong opportunity to open up doors of leading VCs investing globally and meet potential customers. Although US has crossed the tipping point and is trying to reduce their dependency on cash, 48% of consumer payment is still done using cash there. You would be surprised to know it may cost you up to $4 per withdrawal from an ATM in some of the states. Although cashback is possible at a supermarket, SONECT can be a great solution to bring cashback to neighborhood stores and recycle cash in a much more decentralized way in order to reduce its cost. Just like UBER or AirBnB, we want to be the largest network of ATM (neighborhood stores) without owning any and US is the ideal country to realize such a bold vision.
Why is venture leaders Fintech beneficial for your company?
It helps us in 2 ways. Over the years, this program has established itself as a recognition of excellence. It is already an honor for team SONECT to be part of this coverable program. Since the announcement, we are receiving inbound interests from investors, potential clients and we are confident this would help us grow faster. Secondly, this program puts us in the global landscape. I think it would be a great opportunity to learn from those who understand what it takes to scale a startup globally.
Have you been to New York before?
Unfortunately, not yet. This is the first time I will be crossing the Atlantic – hence, very excited. Have heard a lot about rooftop venues where most of the business deals are done. I am looking forward to be part of some of them and experience it first hand. We also won the IMD Startup competition and will be in Silicon Valley along with their EMBA students. Looks like a lot of travel in September is ahead of us.