Bridging Gaps In Financial Inclusion
Kumar Abhishek, in 2013, conceptualized the idea of ToneTag, a unique concept that harnesses the power of sound to enable payments and proximity customer engagement, eliminating any hardware dependency. Kumar aspired to bridge the last mile in financial inclusion, thereby delivering a payment experience that envelopes the critical masses irrespective of geography, internet connectivity and hardware dependency. He strongly believes that collaborations and partnerships enrich and drive abundance than competition.
Kumar envision ToneTag to be a global cognitive energy experience through not merely sound but also other elements, hope to re-establish human intimacy using device communication. Innovations lies at the heart of Tone Tag. “Innovation lies at the heart of problem solving. If you are constantly innovating, you will never be disappointed with the results,” Kumar says with confidence. “Onboarding partners has always been a key decision to make. I believe it is the partnership with companies who share the same vision and thought as ours that have had a significant impact on our company.”
Kumar, with his business acumen and extensive experience in core banking implementation, is a recipient of the National Entrepreneurship Award 2017. Under his leadership, ToneTag has received numerous awards and recognition such as winner of ‘Fintech Rising Star’ during India FinTech Awards 2016; Most Innovative and High Potential Product at NPC 2016 award, Winner of Infosys Fintech Connect 2017, Winner of MasterCard Start Path Global 2017 among others.
Prior to starting ToneTag, he was with Finacle core banking at Infosys and a senior engineer with MindTree where Kumar observed and learnt a great deal. “While trying to solve the problem of loose change, it came to my notice that there was a large gap that existed in the financial sector. Bridging the last mile in financial inclusion became our raison d’etre.
“The technology is hardware independent and does not depend on internet connectivity, allowing people even in remote areas to make transactions on feature phones,” he says.
Speaking about his inspiration in his life Kumar says: “My role models from the CEO community are Elon Musk and Daniel Schulman. I admire their quest for innovation and respect the way they have managed to disrupt the industries they operate in. I look up to them when I think of innovation and disruption, this is what we strive to achieve with the payments space in India.”
Kumar has a vision for ToneTag to offer a global cognitive energy experience through not merely sound but also other elements, connecting millions of unbanked people in rural areas to the cashless payments ecosystem. “The objective is to deliver experiences along with inclusion to the critical masses irrespective of geographies, internet connectivity and hardware dependency. Through ToneTag, I hope to re-establish human intimacy using device communication,” he says.
Taking about the BW 40 under 40 recognition, Kumar says: “We have been fortunate to have a journey so far with multiple milestones, outgrowing the number of lows. Working with globally innovative companies such as Amazon, Infosys and MasterCard has been a massive achievement and shows us that we are on the right path.” He further adds, “Global recognition is not only a motivational factor for us, but we hope to encourage other companies with limited infrastructure and breakthrough technology.”
ToneTag is playing a key role to enable the society and economy leap towards a cashless ecosystem by bringing millions of people into the financial world like never before.
In addition to his business activities in the entrepreneur space, Kumar enjoys playing golf and the saxophone.
