A Chennai-based start-up, Life Tel Communication, has come out with a cash-deposit machine (CDM) that accepts cash from customers of all banks. If you have an account in bank ‘A’, you cannot deposit cash in another bank’s CDM. You can do that only in the CDM of bank ‘A’.

This is really a hurdle for people in many locations, particularly in rural areas, where customers may not have their bank’s branch in close proximity. Though there could be one or two branches of other banks, customers will not be able to deposit cash in the CDMs of those banks.

Life Tel’s new CDM promises to remove this hurdle. Started by three professionals – Hariharasubramanian, Everest Palraj and S Venkatesh – the fledgeling start-up has installed its machines in a few places in Chennai and Coimbatore on a pilot basis. It is doing the pilot for a public sector bank to showcase the machine’s capabilities. The company claims it has been getting very good response for the machines.

Double advantage

While the new machine promises to help customers save on time and cost of travel, services providers and banks also stand to gain.

“If a customer of any bank deposits cash in our machine, the minimum charges would be ₹20 for a transaction amount up to ₹5,000. And from there on, for every ₹5,000, an additional ₹20 will be charged (cash deposit can be made up to ₹49,900).

Currently, it is about ₹100 plus tax (for non-base branch deposits) by most of the private banks, and State Bank of India’s kiosks charges start from ₹25 per transaction,” said Hariharasubramanian, promoter of Life Tel.

The start-up is also developing an app that will provide details on the number transactions done by the machine every day and also the availability of currency notes in the machines (for refilling or clearing the boxes).

“I think this is the first time in the country a CDM has come up with these kind of features. Our machine can be installed in any place in the country. It will be really useful in places where cash transactions are very high,” he said.

The promoters are in talks with the banks, but yet to seal any deal. They are also currently scouting for potential investors for its business growth.

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