Sonect the highlight at the Digital Economy Award 2019

The Zurich-based start-up Sonect was the “highlight of the evening” at the Digital Economy Award Night 2019 according to a press release issued by the event organizers. The FinTech firm was named as winner in the category of Next Global Hot Thing in front of 600 guests at the Hallenstadion in Zurich. President of the Jury Pascal Kaufmann explained the reasoning behind their decision: “Sandipan Chakraborty and his team, in addition to the highly impressive growth figures in particular and customer feedback, convinced us that Sonect is the global Uber for ATMs.” The audience was also able to vote for the winner of the FinTech prize. After the start-ups Sonect, Advaisor (Zürich) und Vereign (Zug) all gave “exciting two-minute pitches”, Sonect was also selected as winner in this category.

Sonect’s business concept is essentially based on the idea that any shop can be used as an ATM. In this way, customers are conveniently able to get cash from shops and “almost totally spare banks from the expensive job of operating ATMs”. Sonect has already been maintaining the largest network of cash issue points across Switzerland and Portugal since 2018, and is experiencing exponential growth as well. Expansion throughout Europe and in the USA is now underway, with a major round of financing expected to be conducted imminently.

There were also other winners from the Greater Zurich Area. In this context, Seervision from Zurich emerged victorious in the category of Digital Innovation of the Year. Vontobel was honoured for its digital transformation as a large company, while the Zurich-based start-up VSHN was recognized for Highest Digital Quality. Side Effects was awarded the “Industry 4.0” certificate. VSHN, Viseca Card Services SA (both Zurich), the Aduno Group (Opfikon ZH) and two further companies took home the “Lean, Agile & Scrum” certificate, while ti&m, Viseca and interactive friends (all Zurich) were among the companies to be awarded the “User Experience” certificate.