Podcast: A woman entrepreneur in a male-dominated FinTech industry
As a teenager, Nandini Sankar decided to tread a not-commonly-taken pathway, back in the 90s. She went on to do an undergraduate course at the University of Rochester in New York, after which the Chennai-born entrepreneur spent about 2 decades weathering its ups and downs in the global financial markets as a hedge fund manager.
In 2019, she, along with a group of financial analysts, launched TOPPEQ, a platform that aims to be a one-stop-shop for working capital management and employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) management services or what is called as ‘cap table’ services.
A capitalisation table, also known as a cap table, is a spreadsheet or table that shows the equity capitalisation of a company. A cap table is most commonly utilized by startups and early-stage businesses. Generally, the table is a detailed breakdown of the equity of a company’s shareholders.
It shows the total market value of a company and its components. As a key point of reference for business managers, the cap table is considered in every financial decision that has an impact on the valuation of a business. As such, it is imperative that a cap table has to be accurate and more importantly be customisable to the individual business needs.
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It takes all of the material information related to capitalisation of a business and summarizes it into a simple and intuitive format to help entrepreneurs make strategic business decisions for stockholder approvals, issuing ESOPs to new hires, raising additional rounds of capital, etc. About 6 months into the launch of MVP TOPPEQ, the COVID-19 Pandemic began.
Earlier, she was a part of the founding team of hedge fund administration firm SS&C GlobeOp in US’s Connecticut. She was the in-charge of the company’s India operations. After moving out of SS&C GlobeOp in 2017, Nandini wore the hat of a social entrepreneur and worked towards creating a pension plan product for domestic workers called okGita.
The idea behind okGita was to encourage domestic workers to save a portion of their salary and employers would match those savings with a contribution. The employer’s contribution would become vested over time. The aim was to create a provident fund product for blue-collar professionals such as household help, chauffeurs and other staff.
In an interview with The Federal, she discusses what is it for start-ups like TOPPEQ in this scenario and what it is to be a woman entrepreneur in predominantly a male-dominated ‘financial technology’ industry.
