It was the year 2022, I was in Alibaug (Mumbai). I had to give someone Rs 150 in cash but they were not accepting UPI payments. Nearby ATMs were not working. Then a restaurant owner gave me Rs 500 in cash instead of Rs 550. In this way he earned Rs 50 by just giving cash. This is where I got the idea that why not create a platform from where cash can be obtained by scanning QR code without going to the ATM. This is how PunkitATM was started. This was said by PocketATM co-founder and former Google employee Mihir Mehta. Kolkata’s Mihir’s journey from Google to entrepreneurship is interesting. He is that in 2011, at the age of 20, I was selected in Google. That was my first and last job. I worked as an account strategist in Google. The experience there was good but I always knew that I had to start my own business. The work culture there is excellent. My manager used to say that if you want to work sitting in the canteen, you can do so. It was not easy for me to say goodbye to such an environment.
I had to prepare for CA, for this I left my job at Google. I studied diligently and in 2014 I cleared my CA. Then I got many job offers but I turned them down because I did not want to start the journey of entrepreneurship. I started one with my friend, it was a partnership firm. I worked there as a Senior Vice President in an investment banking firm for 7 years. After this, I started PerkitATM in 2023. Relaunched in March 2024. Currently its services are in Bangalore and Mumbai. At present, it is an early stage venture and in 6 months its valuation will reach 10-15 million dollars.
The idea behind this venture was whether cash can be withdrawn without going to the ATM? For this, we connected grocery stores. By going to the nearest grocery store and scanning the QR of Pocket ATM there, you can transfer the amount you need in cash to the store owner through UPI. Then he will give you the money in cash. In this, the store owner gets both commission and the customer.
We faced many challenges in the launch of Paytm. We did not focus much on marketing, so convincing the users about the brand was a challenge in itself. When we received funding of Rs 3 crore, we started moving forward. The only secret of success in the field of entrepreneurship is to stay persistent. Work continuously for your vision. I work 16-17 hours daily. In the last one and a half years, we have faced 2 big failures but we are constantly moving forward for our vision.