Abhilasha Negi, Sankash
When I started my career part-time, (for fun and some pocket-money) by selling Personal loans for Citibank and GE Money (Countrywide in 2001- when Personal loans were just picking up in India), little did I know that I will be working on my own venture to create a niche market for travel loans a few years down the line!
Coming from a background of technocrats and bureaucrats, the ‘safer’ career options were always the go-to expected and imbibed by my family. When I chose a career, very different from the lineage, (not the typical doctor, engineer or that of civil services) it didn’t just set me up for proving myself to the outside world, but to my skeptical family members too.
Through my journey at organisations like Kotak Mahindra Bank, PNB MetLife and IndiGo, I faced many challenges as a woman! But they were nothing as compared to being a Womanpreneur! Just when everyone told me that ‘You can’t have it all!’, I took the plunge to juggle between my family and kids, a father to support and my very own start-up—SanKash!
The idea of SanKash was triggered by a small ask by my daughter who wanted to go to Australia to see a kangaroo for real!
That set me to wonder that how many family vacations, solo tours to rejuvenate, religious and educational trips are postponed or cancelled due to unavailability of the money for travel.
Hence, I got back to work after a two year sabbatical, when my younger kid was just one year old, not through an easy path of doing something ‘flexible’ and ‘part-time’ but rather by being one of the main pillars to establish SanKash- a travel fintech, I co-founded with Akash Dahiya and Manu Pal. I believed that travel should be affordable and accessible for everyone! Such that everyone can travel without cash! (‘Sans (means without)’ ‘Kash=cash”)
When most of financial institutions were financing multiple purposes like education, vehicle, and consumer durables but were seeing travel as a luxury commodity, I was of contrary view. I saw it to be a necessity for some and desirable for all, but certainly not a luxury! Thus, SanKash was born to fill this gap in 2018!
SanKash has led 700 travel and tour operators across 32 cities to associate with us offering our services across 1,500 point of sales.
Through my entrepreneurial journey, my endeavour is to change the entire way, in which travel is sold today and moving EMI from a payment tool to an empowering sales tool for travel partners and a means to make travel affordable for all travellers!