Sandeep Tandon | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 17, 1969 |
| Alma mater | University of Southern California |
| Occupation(s) | engineer, entrepreneur and investor |
| Known for | Co-founder of FreeCharge |
| Title | Managing Director of Tandon Group |
| Website | tandongroup |
Sandeep Tandon (born 1969) is an Indian engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded one of India's first mobile payment platforms "FreeCharge" which he would transform into one of India’s earliest and largest e-commerce companies.
Education and Career
editTandon graduated with a Bachelors of Science and Master of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California. [1][2] Upon graduating he went to work for a Los Angeles startup[1] as an application engineer. He would leave the startup to start his own accounts payable company IQBackOffice. [2] In 2000 Tandon would sell the company and return to India to work for Celetronix. He would remain with Celetronix overseeing their indian operation until 2006 when their parent company Tandon Group sold Celetronix to Jabil Circuit.
In 2010 Tandon co-founded the company FreeCharge that allowed users of pre-paid phones to purchase minutes using their device instead of buying minutes at the store. He then would go on to transform FreeCharge into an e-commerce platform. FreeCharge would eventually be be acquired by Snapdeal. Tandon would go to work as managing director of Tandon Group, where he currently oversees strategy and operations of all group companies and work as an angel investor proving funding for startups.[3]
FreeCharge
editIn 2010 Tandon and Kunai Shah created a mobile phone app that allowed user to buy minutes using their phone and offset the cost through coupons.[4] They acquired 200 million in Series A funding of INR from Sequoia capital and Tandon Group.[5] They were able to raise an additional 33 million in Series B funding from Sequoia Capital and Sofina and Runet[6] which they used to transform the company from a mobile payment app to an e-commerce company. [6] In early 2015 they were able to raise an additional 80 million in Series C funding from Valiant Capital Management and Tybourne Capital Management which they used for further expansion and transformation of the company into a "household brand".[7]
On April 8, 2015, the online shopping site Snapdeal acquired FreeCharge, making it one of the largest M&A transaction in India to date. The FreeCharge acquisition doubled Snapdeal’s customer base to 40 million cell phone users and created the country’s largest mobile commerce platform with over one million transactions a day. [8][9]
References
edit- ^ a b "Sandeep Tandon - Tandon Group". Tandon Group. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
- ^ a b "Sandeep Tandon: Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
- ^ "Flashback 2017: Most active angel investors of the year". VCCircle. 2017-12-26. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
- ^ Singh, Shailendra. "How FreeCharge found its mojo, and Snapdeal". Live Mint.
- ^ Sinha, Ashish. "Freecharge Secures INR 20 Cr Series A Funding from Sequoia Capital". www.nextbigwhat.com. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
- ^ a b Shu, Catherine. "FreeCharge, Which Gives Users Coupons For Charging Their Mobile Plans, Raises $33M Series B". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
- ^ Doulatramani, Chandni. "FreeCharge raises $80 million in new funds". Live Mint.
- ^ Thoppil, Dhanya Ann (2015-04-08). "India's Snapdeal Buys FreeCharge". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
- ^ Raghunathan, Anu. "Indian Online Marketplace Snapdeal Becomes Largest M-Commerce Player In The Country". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-01-14.